Numerical Simulation of Advanced Metal Forming Processes
Third Party Funds Group - Sub project
Start date : 01.01.2016
End date : 31.12.2020
Overall project details
Overall project
Multiscale Modelling, Simulation and Optimization for Energy, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
Aug. 1, 2016 - July 31, 2020
Overall project speaker:
Project details
Short description
Short description
For the project “Numerical Simulation of Advanced Metal Forming Processes”, the following scientific program has been defined:
• Numerical simulations and experimental investigations in the area of advanced metal forming will be conducted. It’s expected that advanced forming techniques will enable increased usage of lightweight materials like aluminum in the automotive industry.
• Simulations using the finite element method and experimental investigations on advanced metal forming processes, such as hydroforming aimed at improving room temperature formability of aluminum alloys will be carried out.
• Different combinations of sheet and tube hydroforming processes will be investigated.
• Warm forming processes such as stretch forming and deep drawing will be carried out on automotive-grade aluminum alloys and will be simulated to predict an accurate failure criterion.
• Studying the severe plastic deformation process (SPD) to produce ultra-fine grain materials with increased toughness. Processes such as accumulated roll bonding, cryo-rolling, and constrained groove pressing will be studied using both aluminum and steel sheets. Process modifications to suit the functional requirement of specific applications will be studied for the SPD processes. The microstructure and mechanical behavior of the processed sheets will be characterized.
• Finite element simulations will be performed for the above advanced forming processes using software such as LS-DYNA and Abaqus. The simulations are aimed at understanding the fundamental mechanics of the forming process and to optimize the process parameters.
• An automated optical strain measurement system will be used to measure the surface strains on the formed components to validate and correlate with the finite element simulations.
The following outcomes are expected:
• Establishing process modeling of hydroforming and determination of optimal process parameters.
• Establishing numerical prediction and development of failure criteria for warm forming of sheets.
• Achieving a formability improvement of ultra-fine grained automotive-grade aluminum alloys produced through Severe Plastic Deformation by process modification and modeling.