DEFORMATION ANALYSIS OF SHEET METAL SINGLE-POINT INCREMENTAL FORMING BY FINITE ELEMENT METHOD SIMULATION

Single-point incremental forming （SPIF） is an innovational sheet metal forming method without dedicated dies, which belongs to rapid prototyping technology. In generalizing the SPIF of sheet metal, the deformation analysis on forming process becomes an important and useful method for the planning of shell products, the choice of material, the design of the forming process and the planning of the forming tool. Using solid brick elements, the finite element method（FEM） model of truncated pyramid was established. Based on the theory of anisotropy and assumed strain formulation, the SPIF processes with different parameters were simulated. The resulted comparison between the simulations and the experiments shows that the FEM model is feasible and effective. Then, according to the simulated forming process, the deformation pattern of SPIF can be summarized as the combination of plane-stretching deformation and bending deformation. And the study about the process parameters＇ impact on deformation shows that the process parameter of interlayer spacing is a dominant factor on the deformation. Decreasing interlayer spacing, the strain of one step decreases and the formability of blank will be improved. With bigger interlayer spacing, the plastic deformation zone increases and the forming force will be bigger.

PREDICTION FOR FORMING LIMIT OF AL2024T3 SHEET BASED ON DAMAGE THEORY USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

This paper presents the application of anisotropic damage theory to the study of forming limit diagram of A12024T3 aluminum alloy sheet. In the prediction of limiting strains of the aluminum sheet structure, a finite element cell model has been constructed. The cell model consists of two phases, the aluminum alloy matrix and the intermetallic cluster. The material behavior of the aluminum alloy matrix is described with a fully coupled elasto-plastic damage constitutive equation. The intermetallic cluster is assumed to be elastic and brittle. By varying the stretching ratio, the limiting strains of the sheet under biaxial stretching have been predicted by using the necking criterion proposed. The prediction is in good agreement with the experimental findings. Moreover, the finite element cell model can provide information for understanding the microscopic damage mechanism of the aluminum alloy. Over-estimation of the limit strains may result if the effect of material damage is ignored in the sheet metal forming study.

Numerical analysis of coupled finite element with element-free Galerkin in sheet flexible-die forming

A numerical method for coupled deformation between sheet metal and flexible-die was proposed. Based on the updated Lagrangian （UL） formulation, the elastoplastic deformation of sheet metal was analyzed with finite element method （FEM） and the bulk deformation of flexible-die was analyzed with element-free Galerkin method （EFGM）. The frictional contact between sheet metal and flexible-die was treated by the penalty function method. The sheet elastic flexible-die bulging process was analyzed with the FEM-EFGM program for coupled deformation between sheet metal and bulk flexible-die, called CDSB-FEM-EFGM for short. Compared with finite element code DEFORM-2D and experiment results, the CDSB-FEM-EFGM program is feasible. This method provides a suitable numerical method to analyze sheet flexible-die forming.

Finite Element Simulation of Flexible Roll Forming with Supplemented Material Data and the Experimental Verification

Flexible roll forming is a promising manufacturing method for the production of variable cross section products. Considering the large plastic strain in this forming process which is much larger than that of uniform deformation phase of uniaxial tensile test, the widely adopted method of simulating the forming processes with non-supplemented material data from uniaxial tensile test will certainly lead to large error. To reduce this error, the material data is supplemented based on three constitutive models. Then a finite element model of a six passes flexible roll forming process is established based on the supplemented material data and the original material data from the uniaxial tensile test. The flexible roll forming experiment of a B pillar reinforcing plate is carried out to verify the proposed method. Final cross section shapes of the experimental and the simulated results are compared. It is shown that the simulation calculated with supplemented material data based on Swift model agrees well with the experimental results, while the simulation based on original material data could not predict the actual deformation accurately. The results indicate that this material supplement method is reliable and indispensible, and the simulation model can well reflect the real metal forming process. Detailed analysis of the distribution and history of plastic strain at different positions are performed. A new material data supplement method is proposed to tackle the problem which is ignored in other roll forming simulations, and thus the forming process simulation accuracy can be greatly improved.

Simulation of bulk metal forming processes using one-step finite element approach based on deformation theory of plasticity

The bulk metal forming processes were simulated by using a one-step finite element(FE)approach based on deformation theory of plasticity,which enables rapid prediction of final workpiece configurations and stress/strain distributions.This approach was implemented to minimize the approximated plastic potential energy derived from the total plastic work and the equivalent external work in static equilibrium,for incompressibly rigid-plastic materials,by FE calculation based on the extremum work principle.The one-step forward simulations of compression and rolling processes were presented as examples,and the results were compared with those obtained by classical incremental FE simulation to verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed method.

Finite element method simulation of shotpeening wing skin panel

Finite element method(FEM) was used to simulate the forming process of shotpeening the wing skin panel. Experiment of shotpeeing the wing skin panel was carried out. The results show that equivalent deformation in shotpeening process can be obtained using the elongation and bending result caused by thermal stress that is induced by applying temperature load on the surface of the part. Deformation of the part in the shotpeeing process can be analyzed using this method. The parameters and their relationships are identified.

Three Dimension Rigid-plastic Finite Element Simulation for Two-Roll Cross-wedge Rolling Process

Cross-wedge rolling (CWR) is a metal process of ro ta ry forming. To produce a part, one cylindrical billet should be placed between t wo counterrotating and wedge-shape dies, which move tangentially relative each other. The billet suffers plastic deformation (essentially, localized compressio n) during its rotation between the rotating dies. Compared to other numerical si mulation methods, the finite element method (FEM) has advantages in solving gene ral problems with complex shapes of the formed parts. In cross-wedge rolling, t here are four stages in the workpiece deformation process, namely knifing, guidi ng, stretching and sizing stage. It is time-consuming and expensive to design t he CWR process by trial and error method. The application of numerical simul ation for the CWR process will help engineers to efficiently improve the process development. Tselikov, Hayama, Jain and Kobayashi, and Higashimo applied the sl ip-line theory in study of CWR process analysis. Zb.pater studied CWR process i ncluding upsetting by upper-bound method. The above numerical simulation were b ased on the two-dimensional plain-strain assumption ignored the metal flow in workpiece axial direction. Therefore, the complex three-dimensional stress and deformation involved in CWR processes were not presented. Compared to other nume rical simulation methods, the finite element method (FEM) has advantages in solv ing general problems with complex shapes of the formed parts. As yet, a few 3-D finite element simulation studies on CWR process have been reported in literatu res. In this paper, the process of cross wedge rolling (CWR) has been simulated and analyzed by 3D rigid-plastic finite element method. Considering the charact eristic of CWR, the static implicit FEM program is selected. The models proposed in this study uses the commercial code DEFORM 3D to simulate the CWR process. T his is an implicit Lagrangian finite element code, which includes many new enhan cements functions. A new method of utilizing multiple processors using the MPI s tandard has been implemented. Automatic switching between the two different defo rmation solvers (Sparse Solver and Conjugate Gradient Solver) has also been impl emented in order to increase the speed of simulations. In this paper, all stages in CWR process are simulated to be able to closely understand and analyze the a ctual CWR process. For simulating all forming stages in CWR process, the dynam ic adaptive remeshing technology for tetrahedral solid elements was applied. T he stress distributions in cross section of forming workpiece are analyzed to in terpret fracture or rarefaction in the center of workpiece. Authors also analyze d the time-torque curve and the laws of load changing.

Theory and Method of Optimum Path Forming for Sheet Metal

Ideal forming results will be achieved if the sheet metal is formed along an optimum forming path. Such a path can be realized by multi-point forming technique. On the basis of the theory of the ideal forming path (or minimum plastic work path), the concept of an optimum forming path is proposed in this paper. The forming path can be described by the initial configuration, objective configuration and a series of intermediate configurations. According to the deformation theory and constitutive equation in ideal path forming, a finite element method to calculate the initial configuration is set up. The functional to determinate intermediate configurations is introduced and the numerical method to solve the configuration is presented. Based on the method presented in the paper, multi-step multi-point forming tests for sheet metal are designed. The test results demonstrate that when the sheet is deformed along an approximate optimum forming path, the maximum deformation curvature for the sphere objective shape and saddle objective shape are 11%∼40% and 15%∼50% greater than those of a sheet deformed along a common path respectively.

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.

Stress based forming limit diagram for formability characterization of 6061 aluminum

Two numerical criteria of forming limit diagram（FLD） criterion and ductile fracture criterion（DFC） are presented for FLD prediction of 6061 aluminum. The numerical results are compared with the experimental FLD and also punch＇s load-displacement curve of experimental samples. Experimental FLD of this study is calculated using hemispherical punch test of Hecker. Experimental FLD is converted to FLSD and imported to the Abaqus software to predict necking of samples. Numerical results for FLSD prediction were compared with experimental FLSD. Results show that ductile fracture criterion has higher accuracy for FLD and FLSD prediction of 6061 aluminum. Comparison of numerical and experimental results for force-displacement curve of punch shows that numerical results have a good agreement with experiment.

Springback prediction for incremental sheet forming based on FEM-PSONN technology

In the incremental sheet forming （ISF） process, springback is a very important factor that affects the quality of parts. Predicting and controlling springback accurately is essential for the design of the toolpath for ISF. A three-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element model （FEM） was developed to simulate the process and the simulated results were compared with those from the experiment. The springback angle was found to be in accordance with the experimental result, proving the FEM to be effective. A coupled artificial neural networks （ANN） and finite element method technique was developed to simulate and predict springback responses to changes in the processing parameters. A particle swarm optimization （PSO） algorithm was used to optimize the weights and thresholds of the neural network model. The neural network was trained using available FEM simulation data. The results showed that a more accurate prediction of s!oringback can be acquired using the FEM-PSONN model.

Sheet Metal Forming Simulation and Its Application in Stamping Process of Automobile Panels

The paper starts with a brief overview to the necessity of sheet metal forming simulation and the complexity of automobile panel forming, then leads to finite element analysis (FEA) which is a powerful simulation tool for analyzing complex three-dimensional sheet metal forming problems. The theory and features of the dynamic explicit finite element methods are introduced and the available various commercial finite element method codes used for sheet metal forming simulation in the world are discussed,and the civil and international status quo of automobile panel simulation as well. The front door outer panel of one certain new automobile is regarded as one example that the dynamic explicit FEM code Dynaform is used for the simulation of the front door outer panel forming process. Process defects such as ruptures are predicted. The improving methods can be given according to the simulation results. Foreground of sheet metal forming simulation is outlined.

Analysis of Metal Forming in Two-Roll Cross Wedge Rolling Process Using Finite Element Method

A simulation model for two-roll cross wedge rolling （CWR） was presented by using three-dimensional rigid-plastic finite element method （FEM）. The whole forming process of CWR, including knifing zone, guiding zone, stretching zone, and sizing zone, was simulated using the model in which dynamic adaptive remeshing technology for tetrahedral solid elements was used to fix element distortion. Based on the simulation results, the distributions of metal flow field, strain field, and damage field, and the geometry of the workpiece＇s end were analyzed. These results could provide theoretical guidance for realizing net shaping and reasonable design of tools.

Formability improvement and blank shape definition for deep drawing of cylindrical cup with complex curve profile from SPCC sheets using FEM

In the current work, to predict and improve the formability of deep drawing process for steel plate cold rolled commercial grade （SPCC） sheets, three parameters including the blanking force, the die and punch comer radius were considered. The experimental plan according to Taguchi＇s orthogonal array was coupled with the finite element method （FEM） simulations. Firstly, the data from the test of stress-strain and forming limit curves were used as input into ABAQUS/Explicit finite element code to predict the failure occurrence of deep drawing process. The three parameters were then validated to establish their effects on the press formability. The optimum case found via simulation was finally confirmed through an experiment. In order to obtain the complex curve profile of cup shape after deep drawing, the anisotropic behavior of earring phenomenon was modeled and implemented into FEM. After such phenomenon was correctly predicted, an error metric compared with design curve was then measured.

Numerical simulation and experimental investigation of incremental sheet forming process

In order to investigate the process of incremental sheet forming (ISF) through both experimental and numerical approaches, a three-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element model (FEM) was developed to simulate the process and the simulated results were compared with those of experiment. The results of numerical simulations, such as the strain history and distribution, the stress state and distribution, sheet thickness distribution, etc, were discussed in details, and the influences of process parameters on these results were also analyzed. The simulated results of the radial strain and the thickness distribution are in good agreement with experimental results. The simulations reveal that the deformation is localized around the tool and constantly remains close to a plane strain state. With decreasing depth step, increasing tool diameter and wall inclination angle, the axial stress reduces, leading to less thinning and more homogeneous plastic strain and thickness distribution. During ISF, the plastic strain increases stepwise under the action of the tool. Each increase in plastic strain is accompanied by hydrostatic pressure, which explains why obtainable deformation using ISF exceeds the forming limits of conventional sheet forming.

QUANTITATIVE PREDICTION FOR SPRINGBACK OF UNLOADING AND TRIMMING IN SHEET METAL STAMPING FORMING

Based on the elastic-plastic large deformation finite element formulation as well as the shell element combined discrete Kirchhoff theoretical plate element (DKT) with membrane square element, deep-drawing bending springback of typical U-pattern is studied. At the same time the springback values of the drawing of patterns' unloading and trimming about the satellite aerial reflecting surface are predicted and also compared with those of the practical punch. Above two springbacks all obtain satisfactory results, which provide a kind of effective quantitative pre-prediction of springback for the practical engineers.

FEM analysis of vacuum hot bulge forming of Hastelloy C-276 thin-walled cylindrical workpiece

A stress relaxation test has been carried out for Hastelloy C-276 at temperature of 800 ~C and initial stress level of 250 MPa. Based on the experimental stress relaxation curve, the relationship between creep strain rate and stress has been derived. Then, a set of creep constitutive equations has been built and the values of constants arising in the constitutive equations have been determined by fitting the creep strain rate-stress curve. Close agreement between computed results and experimental ones is obtained for stress relaxation data. The creep constitutive equation set has been integrated with the commercial FE （finite element） solver MSC.Marc via the user defined subroutine, CRPLAW, for the vacuum hot bulge forming process modelling of Hastelloy C-276 thin-walled cylindrical workpiece. The temperature field, the radius-direction displacement field and the stress-strain field are calculated and analyzed. Furthermore, the bulging dimension and the final internal diameter of workpiece are predicted and the test results verify the reliability of the finite element method.

Effect of extrusion wheel angular velocity on continuous extrusion forming process of copper concave bus bar

The continuous extrusion forming process for producing large section copper concave bus bar under different extrusion wheel angular velocities was studied by three-dimensional finite element technology based on software DEFORM-3D. The rigid-viscoplastic constitutive equation was employed in the model. The numerical simulation results show that the deformation body flow velocity in the die orifice increases gradually with the increase of the extrusion wheel angular velocity. But slippage between the rod and extrusion wheel occurs when the extrusion wheel angular velocity is high. The effective stress near the die orifice enhances gradually with increasing extrusion wheel angular velocity. High stress is concentrated in adjacent regions of the flash gap. The effective strain gradient is greater near the abutment than that near the die orifice. The effective strain of the product increases gradually with increasing extrusion wheel angular velocity. In the deformation process, the deformation body temperature increases remarkably due to friction and deformation. So the cooling is necessary in the region of the die and tools.

Automobile Roof Panel Forming: Prediction and Compensation of Springback and Application of Numerical Simulation Based on Dynaform

The forming of sheet metal in a desired and attractive shape is a process that requires an understanding of materials, mechanics and manufacturing principles. Manufacturing a consistent sheet metal component is challenging due to the nonlinear interactions of various material and process parameters. One of the major issues in the manufacturing of inconsistent?sheet metal?parts is springback. Springback is the elastic strain recovery in the material after the tooling is removed and the final shape of the product depends on the springback amount formed. In this study according to the result of simulation the inverted compensation method is adopted to optimize die surface design. Similarly, to predict and compensate the springback error this study presented an analytical approach of forming process in a stepwise modification of the automobile roof panel. Moreover, based on?Dynaform?and?finite element analysis of sheet metal stamping simulation the sprinback in automobile roof panel is predicted and compensated.?In addition, this study examines the significant requirements of the sheet metal forming precision of automobile body and the simulation of forming, stamping and springback of automobile roof panel is carried out, and the result of simulation also is analyzed.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTS FOR PANEL FORMING BASED ON CAD/CAE SYSTEM

A comparison research about the implicit and explicit solutions of sheet forming simulation was presented. On the platform of Autoform and Ls dyna3D, a dynamic forming simulation of a sideframe, of Santana 2000 was done, and the engineering strain, the thickness distribution and the FLD between the two softwares were compared. It indicates that their results coincide with each other very much and the areas of the wrinkle and failure are the same roughly. Further, the characteristics of the two softwares in geometric model and preprocessing of the finite element were discussed and the questions which need attention provided.