Simulation and experimental study of the effect of forming pressure on stepped sheet thinning in hydroforming

Hydroforming process is one of the new methods of producing sheet parts. In this process, the fluid pressure is used to form sheet. Due to the geometry of the stepped rectangular sheet parts, they are the most complex stepped parts which are produced by hydroforming. In this paper, the effect of forming pressure on the thinning of the stepped rectangular sheet parts is studied. The ABAQUS software is used to perform the simulations. At the end of the study, it was shown that by increasing the forming pressure up to a certain value, the maximum thinning at the punch corner radius and the wall of the steps decrease but by increasing the pressure more than this optimum value, due to lack of flow of material between two steps for filling part, and the tension at this area, the thinning at these areas increased by increasing the filling and pressure.

کلیدواژه ها:

Stepped hydroforming ، forming pressure ، thinning ، rectangular sheet