Christophe Henrard

Finite element modeling of incremental forming of aluminium sheets

Incremental forming is an innovative and flexible sheet metal forming technology for small batch production and prototyping, which does not require any dedicated die or punch to form a complex shape. This paper investigates the process of single point incremental forming of an aluminum cone with a 50-degree wall angle both experimentally and numerically. Finite element models are established to simulate the process. The output of the simulation is given in terms of final geometry, the thickness distribution of the product, the strain history and distribution during the deformation as well as the reaction forces. Comparison between the simulation results and the experimental data is made.

Comparison of FEM simulations for the incremental forming process

Incremental forming is an innovative and highly flexible sheet metal forming technology for small batch production and prototyping that does not require any adapted dies or punches to form a complex shape. The purpose of this article is to perform FEM simulations of the forming of a cone with a 50-degree wall angle by incremental forming and to investigate the influence of some crucial computational parameters on the simulation. The influence of several parameters will be discussed: the FEM code used (Abaqus or Lagamine, a code developed at the University of Liège), the mesh size, the potential simplification due to the symmetry of the part and the friction coefficient. The output is given in terms of final geometry (which depends on the springback), strain history and distribution during the deformation, as well as reaction forces. It will be shown that the deformation is localized around the tool and that the deformations constantly remain close to a plane strain state for this geometry. Moreover, the tool reaction clearly depends on the way the contact is taken into account.

Forming Limit Predictions for Single-Point Incremental Sheet Metal Forming

A characteristic of incremental sheet metal forming is that much higher deformations can be achieved than conventional forming limits. In this paper it is investigated to which extent the highly non‐monotonic strain paths during such a process may be responsible for this high formability. A Marciniak‐Kuczynski (MK) model is used to predict the onset of necking of a sheet subjected to the strain paths obtained by finite‐element simulations. The predicted forming limits are considerably higher than for monotonic loading, but still lower than the experimental ones. This discrepancy is attributed to the strain gradient over the sheet thickness, which is not taken into account in the currently used MK model.

Validation of a new finite element for incremental forming simulation using a dynamic explicit approach

Abstract: A new method for modeling the contact between the tool and the metal sheet for the incremental forming process was developed based on a dynamic explicit time integration scheme. The main advantage of this method is that it uses the actual contact location instead of fixed positions, e.g. integration or nodal points. The purpose of this article is to compare the efficiency of the new method, as far as accuracy and computation time are concerned, with finite element simulations using a classic static implicit approach. In addition, a sensitivity analysis of the mesh density will show that bigger elements can be used with the new method compared to those used in classic simulations.