Meshfree Method Numerical Simulation of Sheet Metal Forming Process

Metal forming plays an important role in manufacturing industry and is widely applied in industries.The tradi- tional finite element method(FEM)numerical simulation is commonly used to predict metal forming process.Conventional finite element analysis of metal forming processes often breaks down due to severe mesh distortion,therefore time-consuming remeshing is necessary.Meshfree methods have been developed since 1977 and can avoid this problem.This new generation of computational methods reduces time-consuming model generation and refinement effort,and its shape function has higher order connectivity than FEM’s.In this paper the velocity shape functions are developed from a reproducing kernel approximation that satisfies consistency conditions and is used to analyze metal tension rigid viscoplastic deforming and Magnesium Alloy(MB 15)sheet superplastic ten- sion forming.A meshfree method metal forming modeling program is set up,the partition of unity method is used to compute the integrations in weak form equations and penalty method is used to impose the essential boundary condition exactly.Metal forming examples,such as sheet metal superplastic tension forming and metal rigid viscoplastic tension forming,are analyzed to demon- strate the performance of mesh free method.