Simulation of die filling in 3D with special emphasis on vibration supported filling

Modelling die filling with focus on density distribution is a key component in establishing a continuous virtual process chain for the die compaction and sintering processing route. A discrete element method (DEM) has been developed considering the particulate nature of flowing powders. The code is parallelized enabling detailed simulations of three-dimensional parts. To demonstrate the possibilities of the model filling simulations had been performed for two different die cavities. Different filling shoe velocities as well as shaking conditions for both sohe and cavity have been investigated. The origins of appearing inhomogeneities are highlighted. While it was found that at least for the filling conditions studied the shoe velocity as well as shoe oscillations have only a minor influenc e, the results clearly indicate that shaking the cavity has high potentialfor reducing density heterogenities.