International audienceNumerical simulation is used to study patented high-C steel flat-rolled wire cold forming processes. An elasto-plastic power law, identified from mechanical tests, is used into Forge2005® finite element (FEM) package in order to describe the material behaviour during wire drawing followed by cold rolling. A through-process approach has been favoured, transferring residual wire-drawing stresses and strain into the flat-rolling preform. This mechanical analysis, associated with a triaxiality study, points to dangerous areas where fracture may initiate due to high tensile stresses. Lemaître's isotropic damage criterion, including crack closure effect, a -1/3 cut-off value of stress triaxiality, and tension/compression damage asymmetry, has been used and has confirmed the previous analysis. A number of non-coalesced voids nucleated on inclusions have been observed in the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), especially in high-deformation zones ("blacksmith's cross"). Their evolution has been simulated in the FEM model using spherical numerical markers, which deform into oblate or prolate ellipsoids. The deformation-induced morphological evolution of voids observed in the SEM compares well with the geometrical evolution of the markers, which suggests that the morphologies observed do not result from micro-crack propagation, but from material transport of the nucleated voids

International audienceCoupling of evolutionary algorithms (EA) with meta-models (MM) is used to investigate the concept of the optimal die semi-angle in wire drawing. Traditional process design by minimization of the wire drawing force highlights an optimal die angle which increases with friction factor and reduction ratio. When wire drawing optimization is applied on the Latham and Cockcroft damage criterion, an optimal die semi-angle no longer appears: in this mono-objective optimization, the lowest industrially achievable die angle is recommended. Thanks to EA-MM coupling, multi-objective optimizations have been performed and the Pareto optimal front has been precisely plotted so as to find the best compromise. Simultaneous optimization of damage and wire drawing force suggests a refined vision of the optimal die semi-angle concept. Choosing a lower angle than the traditional optimum allows damage to be decreased without a significant increase of the drawing force. However, it is shown that a die semi-angle slightly above the optimum should be selected, for fear of friction drift; this explains the rather high traditional value of the angle