Effects of Loading Paths on Hydrodynamic Deep Drawing with Independent Radial Hydraulic Pressure of Aluminum Alloy Based on Numerical Simulation

In order to meet the forming demands for low plasticity materials and large height-diameter ratio parts, a new process of hydrodynamic deep drawing （HDD） with independent radial hydraulic pressure is proposed. To investigate the effects of loading paths on the HDD with independent radial hydraulic pressure, the forming process of 5A06 aluminum alloy cylindrical cup with a hemispherical bottom was studied by numerical simulation. By employing the dynamic explicit analytical software ETA/Dynaform based on LS-DYNA3D, the effects of loading paths on the sheet-thickness distribution and surface quality were analyzed. The corresponding relations of the radial hydraulic pressure loading paths and the part＇s strain status on the forming limit diagram （FLD） were also discussed. The results indicated that a sound match between liquid chamber pressure and independent radial hydraulic pressure could restrain the serious thinning at the hemisphere bottom and that through adjusting radial hydraulic pressure could reduce the radial tensile strain and change the strain paths. Therefore, the drawing limit of the aluminum cylindrical cup with a hemispherical bottom could be increased significantly.

Formation of Aluminum-magnesium Alloy Cup by Hydrodynamic Deep Drawing with Twin-loading Paths

In order to overcome the limitation of hydro-rim deep drawing, a new process of hydrodynamic deep drawing （HDD） with independent radial hydraulic pressure was proposed. By employing the dynamic explicit analytical software ETA/DynaformS.5 which is based on LS-DYNA3D, the effects of independent radia! hydraulic pressure on the stress, strain and the sheet-thickness of aluminum-magnesium cylindrical cup with a hemispherical bottom were analyzed by numerical simulation. The feature of stress distribution is that there exists a stress-dividing circle in the flange, and the radius of dividing circle was determined by theoretical analysis and stimulation. The experimental results indicate that the reasonable match of independent radial hydraulic pressure and liquid chamber pressure can effectively reduce the thinning at the bottom of hemisphere, decrease the radial stress-strain, and improve the drawing limit of aiuminum-magnesium alloy cylindrical cup.

Measurment of gas-liquid two-phase slug flow with a Venturi meter based on blind source separation

We propose a novel flow measurement method for gas–liquid two-phase slug flow by using the blind source separation technique. The flow measurement model is established based on the fluctuation characteristics of differential pressure(DP) signals measured from a Venturi meter. It is demonstrated that DP signals of two-phase flow are a linear mixture of DP signals of single phase fluids. The measurement model is a combination of throttle relationship and blind source separation model. In addition, we estimate the mixture matrix using the independent component analysis(ICA) technique. The mixture matrix could be described using the variances of two DP signals acquired from two Venturi meters. The validity of the proposed model was tested in the gas–liquid twophase flow loop facility. Experimental results showed that for most slug flow the relative error is within 10%.We also find that the mixture matrix is beneficial to investigate the flow mechanism of gas–liquid two-phase flow.