IML 332 COURSE SUPPLEMENT

Bu dokman The Ohio State Universityde Prof.Taylan Alytan ynetimindeki ERC/NSM ekibinin haz'rlad'(' bir e(itim setine aittir. )T (rencilerinin faydalanmas' iin izin al'narak da('t'lm'-t'r. H.Livatyal' bahar 2007

PROCESS MODELLING IN SHEET METAL FORMING

1. Introduction
In order to take maximum advantage of Sheet Metal Forming process, the component design, the choice of material and the process parameters must be addressed at an early stage of the design process. This has to be carried out well before the prototyping stage in order to save cost and product development time. Also the process limitations for a specific component must be predicted early in the design cycle so that expensive design modifications can be avoided. The objective of FE simulations is to replace costly and elaborate experimental testing by fast and low cost process simulations. Thus prototyping costs and lead times would be reduced significantly. Sheet metal forming is an essential part of the modern industry. It is required in the manufacture of wide range of goods including automobiles, aircraft and consumer products. The design process of complex shaped sheet metal stampings such as automotive panels consists of many stages of decision making and is a very expensive and time consuming process. Currently in industry, many engineering decisions are made based on the knowledge of experienced personnel and these decisions are typically validated during the soft tooling and prototyping stage and during hard die tryouts. Very often the soft and hard tools must be reworked or even redesigned and remanufactured to provide parts with acceptable levels of quality. To reduce the amount of time and money invested in die tryout and to shorten the lead times to meet production schedules, a scientific approach should be taken for the design and manufacture of the sheet metal forming dies. The best-case scenario would consist would consist of the process outlined in fig. 1. In this design process, the experienced product designer would have immediate feedback using specially designed software called one-step FEM to estimate the formability of their design. This would allow the product designer to make necessary changes up front as opposed to down the line after expensive tooling has been manufactured. One-step FEM is particularly suited for product analysis since it does not require binder, addendum, or even most process conditions. Typically this information is not available during the product design phase. One step FEM is also easy to 1

use and computationally fast, which allows the designer to play What if with out much time investment. Once the product has been designed and validated, the development project would enter the time zero phase and be passed onto die designer. The die designer would validate his/her design with an incremental FEM code and make necessary design changes and perhaps even optimize the process parameters to ensure not just minimum acceptability of part quality, but maximum achievable quality. This increases product quality but also increase process robustness. Incremental FEM is particularly suited for die design analysis since it does require binder, addendum and process conditions, which are either known during, die design or desired to be known. The validated die design would then be manufactured directly into the hard production tooling and be validated with physical tryouts during which the prototype parts would be made. Tryout time is decreased due to the earlier numerical validations. Redesign and remanufacturing of the tooling due to unforeseen forming problems should be a thing of the past. The decrease in tryout time and elimination of redesign/ remanufacturing should more than make up for the time used to numerically validate the part, die and process. Optimization of the stamping process is also of great importance to producers of sheet stamping. By modestly increasing ones investment in presses, equipment and tooling used in sheet forming, one may increase ones control over the stamping process tremendously. The advances in sheet metal forming technology are achieved by considering fundamental variables that affect the process, namely: (a) Characteristics of the incoming sheet blank (b) Conditions at the material-tool interface (c) The mechanics of the deformation-stresses, forming load, and metal flow (d) Tool design-geometry, tolerances, surface finish, and material (e) Characteristics of the forming machine-stiffness, production rate and reliability (f) The production-geometry, tolerances, properties and surface finish and (g) Environmental factors-air and noise pollution, available manpower, and facilities support and control. In addition, it is necessary that technologically advances be applied in production for cost effective and competitive manufacturing. The application of computer-Aided design/ Computer-Aided Manufacturing/ Computer-Aided Engineering (CAD/ CAM/ CAE) techniques is a relatively new development in sheet metal forming. This is because of the complexities involved in modeling sheet metal forming processes. However, the advantages to be gained by the application of Computer-Aided Engineering 2

methods are so significant in this area that it can no longer be ignored. Computer aided process simulation, while not taking all the variables into account, allows the metal forming engineer to consider in a very systematic way most of the significant factors affecting the design and start up of a process. Process simulation is best conducted during process and die design and requires reliable input data (initial die geometry, the geometry of the product, physical properties of both die and the workpiece, the ram speed of the machine used, friction coefficients for the materials under consideration.) The accuracy of the predictions is very much dependent upon the accuracy of this input data. The results of the simulation often require appropriate use and interpretation. Thus, the engineer performing process simulation is expected to be knowledgeable about the technological aspects of the process that is being simulated. The examples discussed in this chapter illustrate how technological know how and the simulation capability can together help solve practical problems encountered in sheet metal forming production. Process simulations, when conducted with appropriate input parameters, will help the design engineer in the following ways [Altan, 1998]. Test the workability (feasibility) of a specific production concept. The feasibility testing helps to determine whether a part can be produced by hydroforming and if not, what changes can be helpful to make the part producible by hydroforming without the need of a real prototype testing. Predict mechanical and technological characteristics such as residual stress left in the formed part and probable-failure areas in the formed part. Predict product quality (eg. wall thickness distribution) and improve it. This is especially important in case of structural parts such as car body frames. Predict process reliability (avoiding wrinkling and bursting). This is critical when mass production of the component has to be commenced and consistency of the material quality of the tube is not completely assured. Predict loads and stresses acting on the tool. This is very essential for proper die design and proper selection of press capacity. Increase process know-how. It gives the user hints about the strong and weak areas in the production process and steps to eliminate or minimize them.

Experience

Part Design

Geometry Transfer / Meshing

Product Validation using One-Step FEM

Die / Process Design

Geometry Transfer / Meshing

Die / Process Validation using Incremental FEM

Die Construction Engineering Change Sub-assembly

Lubrication Process Monitoring

Die Tryout Production Assembly

Process Control

Figure 1.1: The Strategy for using computer simulations in Sheet Forming process development

Reduce product and process development times and costs. It helps to postpone the expensive prototype testing to a later stage or altogether eliminate it in some cases. This saves not only money, but also the valuable process development time.

Reduce the risk of bad process planning. By giving detailed information on process parameters, simulation stops the engineer from going ahead with a possible bad process planning.

Optimize the part and process design. Optimization with simulations save not only time and money involved in real experiments, but also gives the engineer an option to try a large variety of part and process designs.

2. Finite Element Methodology

2.1 Finite Element Method (FEM)
As the name implies, the basic concept of the FEM is discretization. The basic building block is an element of finite dimensions. The object to be analyzed is divided into a number of these small elements. These elements are joined at corners, and it is assumed that stress is uniform throughout the element. The element distortions are computed by conventional theory. The total behavior of the model depends on the integrated effects of each of these elements. The finite element model is constructed in the following manner [Kobayashi, Altan 1989]. A number of finite points are identified in the domain of the function, and the values of the function and its derivatives, when appropriate, are specified at these points. The points are called nodal points. The domain of the function is represented approximately by a finite collection of subdomains called finite elements. The domain is then an assemblage of elements connected together appropriately on their boundaries. The function is approximated locally within each element by continuous functions that are uniquely described in terms of the nodal-point values associated with the particular element. The path to solution of a finite element problem consists of the following steps. (a) Identification of the problem (b) Definition of the element 5

(c) Establishment of the element equation (d) Assemblage of the element equations, and (e) The numerical solutions of the global equations. The formation of element equations is accomplished from one of the four directions: (1) Direct approach (2) Variational method (3) Method of weighted residuals and (4) Energy balance approach The basis of finite element metal flow modeling, for example, using the variational approach is to formulate proper functionals, depending upon specific constitutive relations. The solution of the original boundary value problem is obtained by the solution of the dual variational problem in which first order variation of the functional vanishes. The functional is expresses locally within each element in terms of the nodal values by choosing an appropriate interpolation function or shape function for the filed variables in the elements. The local equations are then assembled into the overall problem. Thus, the functional is approximated by a function of global nodal point values. The condition for this function to be stationary results in the stiffness equations. These stiffness equations are then solved under appropriate boundary conditions.

2.2 Metal Forming and the Finite Element Method

In the analysis of metal forming, plastic strains usually overweigh elastic strains and the idealization of rigid-plastic or rigid-viscoplastic material behavior is often acceptable [Kobayashi, Altan 1989]. The resulting analysis based on this assumption is known as the flow formulation. In the so-called solid formulation, the material is considered to behave as an elastic-plastic or elastic viscoplastic solid. Finite Element Methods that are used for metal forming simulations can be divided into two categories implicit methods and explicit methods. The classification is based on how metal forming process is treated in application of FEM. Implicit methods consider the metal forming process to be an incremental static problem. The Newton-Raphson method is used in this category. Explicit methods treat metal forming process as a dynamic problem. The solution obtained from the previous time step is used to calculate the variables for the current time step. 6

The equation of motion is mostly numerically integrated by using the central difference method. The disadvantage of the explicit method is that the time step used has to be shorter than the critical time step that is determined by the propagation speed of elastic waves inside the material and the selected discretization of the workpiece. This is required in order to maintain stability of the process. The time step is defined by the smallest characteristic length of an element. In the explicit method the calculation time is directly proportional to the process period (i.e. the number of time steps required). It takes longer computational time compared to that for the implicit method. Therefore during the simulation, the metal forming processes to be investigated are usually accelerated. However it must be made sure that the inertial forces remain low and do not considerably falsify the results of the simulation.

2.3 Software for Sheet Forming Simulations

Various software packages available in the market place are capable of simulating the Sheet Forming process. Both explicit codes and implicit codes can handle the process [Ahmetoglu, 1999]. To model the Sheet Forming be capable of accurately representing the following process, the simulation program should Tool geometry Blank material properties in the forming range Surface interaction between the part and the tool Boundary constraints representing the movement of the tool and the part.

Among the commercial software packages widely used for Sheet Forming simulations are: PAM-STAMP, LS-DYNA, DynaForm Auto-Form Fastform 3D and other single step FEM software

DEFORM, MSC Superform, Q-Form (originally designed for bulk forming)

3. Issues And Elements Involved In FE Simulations

3.1 Issues in Process Simulation
The practical issues in process simulation of Sheet Forming are as follows Prediction of spring-back Prediction of failure and failure criteria (buckling, bursting) Realistic material properties such as flow stress curve and anisotropy Realistic friction condition blank-die interface.

3.2 Input Parameters for Process Simulation

For reliable predictions using simulations, the most critical of the issues is the accuracy of input parameters. Wrong input data results in wrong output and predictions, i.e. garbage in garbage out occurs. The important input parameters for a simulation, which the simulation engineer needs to know before starting the simulation, are as follows [Altan, 2000]. Material properties (flow stress, anisotropy) Initial geometry (diameter, length, thickness) and its FE mesh Die geometry and its FE mesh. Relative positions of die and blank Interface friction coefficient Process parameters

3.3 Structure of Simulation Software

A typical simulation software may consist of three user-friendly modules, namely pre-processor, solver and post-processor. In pre-processor all geometry (CAD data), physical and kinematic conditions (including boundary conditions and interface conditions) will be set. The solver will execute the built-in FE code for the process and generate data to be stored in various files. The post-processor helps the user to retrieve the simulation results in a user-friendly manner including graphical display. The software structure and operation sequence is illustrated in Figure 3.1 [Schmidt, 1998]. 8

Pre-processor

Solver

Post-processor

Results Data / Graphics CAD Model and Input paramete Figure 3.1: Modules in typical simulation software

3.4 Creation of CAD geometry and FE mesh

The CAD model of the tool and workpiece may be generated in a CAD software (eg. Ideas, Unigraphics, SolidEdge) and the same can be meshed for finite element analysis. In generating the FE mesh, the important consideration is that for proper element size and appropriate element type. The element size has to be chosen depending on the complexity of the final part geometry the accuracy requirements. The smaller the element, better the accuracy but higher will be the computational time. The element shape can be quadrilateral or triangular depending on the geometry. The mesh can be denser (more elements per unit area) where there are sharp bends or changes in the geometry. When the final part geometry is symmetric about one or more axes, it is wise to use half or quarter model of geometry for the simulations. Half or quarter models have less number of elements and hence save computational time while running the simulation. Once the FE meshes for the tube, dies and punches are created, the next step is to position them appropriately. The meshes can be checked for penetration to make sure that they are positioned without interference.

3.5 Setting up Material Properties and Process Conditions

It is important to define the material behavior law to be followed for stress-strain relationship. Material properties of the tube will include Strength coefficient (K), strain-hardening exponent (n), elastic modulus (E), yield strength ( y), Poissons ratio (m), density ( ), normal anisotropy ( r ) and pre-strain (
0

).

Process conditions to be imposed will depend on the model and the Sheet Forming operation. It includes directional (translational and rotational) constraints on the nodes, velocity boundary conditions on the punches, loading conditions such as pressure loading path, feed loading path, counter punch force loading path, interface friction and interface contact types.

3.6 Process Failure Criteria in Simulations

The prediction and elimination of process failures such as buckling, wrinkling and excessive thinning is one among the important objectives of conducting process simulations. Buckling The danger of buckling prevails at the start of the operation as a result of excessive axial force acting on the initial blank [Dohmann, 1996]. Buckling is a function of the blank dimensions, the process parameters and the die geometry. It is initiated by non-symmetric deformation after the start of flow [Hoff et al, 1996]. Non-symmetric deformation can be caused by blanks that do not have a constant thickness. Buckling may occur during the deformation before the tube wall touches the inner wall of the die cavity. Buckling, in most cases, can be detected through visualization of simulation results. Wrinkling In tube Sheet Forming, wrinkling occurs when the blank holder force is too low. Wrinkles can be eliminated usually by increasing the blank holder pressure during the expansion process. Like buckling, wrinkling can be detected through visualization of simulation results.

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Excessive thinning In Sheet Forming of structural parts such as an automotive body frame, distribution of the material or the variation of thickness is significance as it affects the strength and stiffness of the formed part. In this case, thinning above the allowed limit can be considered as a failure because the part becomes unsuitable for the application. FE simulation can predict thinning distribution at each stage of the process. This capability is very useful in the design structural parts for Sheet Forming.

3.7 Pressure and Feed Control in Simulations

In Sheet Forming, achieving the desired result through simulations may require much iteration. By iterative simulations, it is possible to vary the input parameters and achieve the best possible result. Also, the sensitivity of the process to a specific parameter can be studied through iterative simulations. In sensitivity analysis, the parameter to be studies is varied iteratively, whereas the other input parameters are kept the same. Thus, the sensitivity of the output to that specific parameter can be analyzed. This is also a very useful tool in design and development of the part and the process.

3.8 Results from Simulations

A number of outputs can be obtained from process simulations. The results can be viewed in the graphical form and in many cases the output data can be plotted as curves or graphs or stored as numerical data. Some of the most useful output data that can be obtained from process simulations of Sheet Forming are as follows [Altan, 1998; Hartl, 1999]. Amount of Expansion: This helps the engineer to decide whether the part design and the blank material are suitable for successful Sheet Forming. Also this gives an idea about the capability of the designed process. Thickness Distribution: The opportunity to know the expected thickness distribution in the final part allows the engineer to predict the mechanical suitability of the part for the intended application. Thickness distribution is critical in case of Sheet Forming of structural components. Moreover knowledge of the thickness distribution can be used to custom-design

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the perform tube, especially if the manufacturing process for tube allows for thickness variation. Strain Distribution: The strain values can be obtained from simulations as graphical plots or contour plots. This helps the engineer to predict the possible weak-spots in the part. It also gives an estimation of how close the process design is to the process limits i.e. distance to the forming limit in FLD diagram. Residual Stress and Springback: The residual stress distribution can be useful to predict the functional suitability of the part in the service condition. The springback calculation helps the engineer to redesign the part so as to compensate for the springback effect. Final Part Geometry: The part geometry and dimensions generated by simulation are greatly helpful to the design engineer. From this, the engineer can determine whether the part is acceptable or needs further refinements, and whether the process parameters are sufficient or not. If the part geometry is not as expected, the engineer has the option of changing the simulation inputs such as material data, die-design or the process parameters and try new simulations. Loads on Tool: The loads and stresses on the tools (punches and die blocks) can be estimated based on the stress generated on the part near the region of contact between the part and the tool. This is helpful in design of the die and the tool system. This also may help in deciding the capacity of the Sheet Forming press.

3.9 Conclusions
The application of process modeling in sheet metal forming is being gradually accepted by industry. Large companies with research and development staff have been using various computer codes for process and tool design for many years. However, there are still a larger number of medium to small size companies that have difficulty in introducing this engineering approach into their daily operation. In this chapter, it is illustrated how metal flow simulation can be used, in appropriate manner, for practical purposes with significant cost and timesavings. 12

REFERENCES
[Altan, T., 1998] Process Mechanics and Computer Simulations, Workshop on Fundamentals of Hydroforming, Proceedings of The 2nd International Hydroforming Congress, Nashville, Tennessee, November 1998.

[Kobayashi, S., Oh, S., Altan, T., 1989] Metal Forming and the Finite Element Method, Oxford University Press, 1989. [Altan, T., 2000] Process Design and Simulations, Hydroforming 101 Workshop, Detroit, Michigan, May 2000. [Schmidt, T., Thomas, W., and Altan, T., 1998] PAM-STAMP Manual, Report No. THF/ERC/NSM-98-R-33, Engineering Research Center for Net Shape Manufacturing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, July, 1998.

[Roll, K., 1995] Finite Element Simulation of Internal and External High Pressure Forming, Proceedings of the Sheet Forming Technology Conference, Technical University of Stuttgart, June 1995.

[Ahmetoglu, M., Kinzel, G., Altan, T., 1994] Computer Simulation for Tool and Process Design in Sheet Forming, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 1994. [Thomas, W., Oenoki, T., Altan, T., 1998] Process Simulation in Stamping- Recent Applications for Product and Process Design, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 1994.

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