Optimization technics to identify the characteristics of a hydroformed structure

This paper presents an experimental/numerical methodology which aims to improve 3D welded tube considering their anisotropic effect, deometrical singularities found in the welded joint, and heat affected zone behaviour by hydroforming process. This process contributes to reduce the number of welding and assembly operations needed to generate complex structures, while improving the weight saving and quality of finished parts. In spite of the advances in the performance of this manufacturing technology, some problems are linked to particularities of certain raw materials and additional studies must be developed, like in the case of welded tubes. The experimental study is dedicated to the identification of stress-strain flow of the base metal and the heat-affected zone from the global measure of tube investigate the heat affected zone mechanical behaviour. Workpiece behaviour's models used to simulate the expansion tests, made it possible to highlight the combined effects of the inhomogeneous behaviour of basic material and heat affected zone, as well as the geometrical singularities found in the welded tubes. From the simulations carried out, it is clear the influence of the plastic flow behaviour of the welded tube in the final results (thickness distribution, stress instability, tube circularity, critical thinning and rupture)

A Remeshing Procedure for Numerical Simulation of Forming Processes in Three Dimensions

Abstract. This article presents a remeshing procedure of thin sheets for numerical simulation of metal forming process in three dimensions. During simulation of metal forming processes, where large plastic deformations are possible, severe mesh distortion occur after a few incremental steps. Hence an automatic mesh generation with remeshing capabilities is essential to carry out the finite element analysis. This paper gives the necessary steps to remesh a structure in finite element simulation of forming processes. The proposed remeshing technique based on geometrical criteria includes adaptive refinement and coarsening procedures. It has been implemented with triangular and quadrilateral elements. The proposed method has been integrated in a computational environment using the ABAQUS solver. Numerical examples show the efficiency of the proposed approach

Optimization technics to identify the characteristics of a hydroformed structure

International audienceThis paper presents an experimental/numerical methodology which aims to improve 3D welded tube considering their anisotropic effect, deometrical singularities found in the welded joint, and heat affected zone behaviour by hydroforming process. This process contributes to reduce the number of welding and assembly operations needed to generate complex structures, while improving the weight saving and quality of finished parts. In spite of the advances in the performance of this manufacturing technology, some problems are linked to particularities of certain raw materials and additional studies must be developed, like in the case of welded tubes. The experimental study is dedicated to the identification of stress-strain flow of the base metal and the heat-affected zone from the global measure of tube investigate the heat affected zone mechanical behaviour. Workpiece behaviour's models used to simulate the expansion tests, made it possible to highlight the combined effects of the inhomogeneous behaviour of basic material and heat affected zone, as well as the geometrical singularities found in the welded tubes. From the simulations carried out, it is clear the influence of the plastic flow behaviour of the welded tube in the final results (thickness distribution, stress instability, tube circularity, critical thinning and rupture)