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Detailed Investigation of Forming Limit Determination Standards for Aluminum Alloys

In this study, experimental studies were conducted to evaluate the differences between the ASTM E2218-02 and ISO 12004-2 standards that are used for construction of the forming limit curve (FLC) and that made various assumptions, which create dissimilar FLCs for the same material. The comparison was made for two materials which have moderate brittle and ductile characteristics, AA2024-T4 and AA5754-O alloys, respectively. The effects of a specimen’s geometry, lubrication condition, and determination methods of limit strains on FLCs were considered and compared. Because the same strain evaluation method should be used for the standards, so as to be able to investigate the effect of only standards, a simple method in the computer grid analysis system was used. To test the validity and the reliability of the method, limit strains on the same specimens were also determined with using a real-time measurement method for the ISO experiments, and the results reveal that the method is reliable. Failure mechanisms were inspected for further investigation. The Nakajima specimens formed with the two standards showed different failure mechanisms. Finally, conducting the case studies, it was concluded that ISO 12004-2 yields more reliable and reproducible results than the ASTM standard.

Design, Fabrication, and Experimental Validation of a Warm Hydroforming Test System

In this study, a hydroforming system was designed, built, and experimentally validated to perform lab-scale warm hydromechanical deep drawing (WHDD) tests and small-scale industrial production with all necessary heating, cooling, control and sealing systems. This manuscript describes the detailed design and fabrication stages of a warm hydroforming test and production system for the first time. In addition, performance of each subsystem is validated through repeated production and/or test runs as well as through part quality measurements. The sealing at high temperatures, the proper insulation and isolation of the press frame from the tooling and synchronized control had to be overcome. Furthermore, in the designed system, the flange area can be heated up to 400 °C using induction heaters in the die and blank holders (BH), whereas the punch can be cooled down to temperatures of around 10 °C. Validation and performance tests were performed to characterize the capacity and limits of the system. As a result of these tests, the fluid pressure, the blank holder force (BHF), the punch position and speed were fine-tuned independent of each other and the desired temperature distribution on the sheet metal was obtained by the heating and cooling systems. Thus, an expanded optimal process window was obtained to enable all or either of increased production/test speed, reduced energy usage and time. Consequently, this study is expected to provide other researchers and manufacturers with a set of design and process guidelines to develop similar systems.

Investigation of the effect of hydromechanical deep drawing process parameters on formability of AA5754 sheets metals by using neuro-fuzzy forecasting approach

Adaptive neural-network based fuzzy logic inference system (ANFIS) is a useful method instead of costly Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in order to reduce investigation cost of forming processes. In this research, the effect of hydromechanical deep drawing (HDD) process parameters on AA5754-O sheet was investigated by FE simulations with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Modeling approach. In order to determine the prediction error of the ANFIS model according to FEA, firstly a series of FEA of the HDD process were conducted according to Taguchis Design of Experiment Method (DOE). The results of the FEA were confirmed by comparing the thickness distributions of the formed cups by experimentally and numerically. Moreover an adaptive neural-network based fuzzy logic inference system (ANFIS) was created according to results of simulation to predict the maximum thinning of AA5754-O sheet without needing FE simulations. The calculation performances of the ANFIS model were determined by comparing the estimated results with the results of the FE simulations. By using the results of the FE simulations which were conducted according to a matrix plan, the effects of the parameters to the thinning of the blank were determined by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) method. ABAQUS and MATLAB/ANFIS/Simulink softwares were used to realize and simulate proposed techniques. Mean error of prediction result of ANFIS is found as 0.89% according to FEA.

The Effect of Temperature and Strain-Rate Sensitivity on Formability of AA 5754

Aluminum alloys have limited usage because of their limited formability at room temperatures. In order to design and develop more parts made of aluminum, new forming techniques such as hydroforming, warm forming and warm hydroforming have been researched to overcome the low formability issues. This, in turn, necessitates understanding and modeling the behavior of aluminum alloys at different temperatures and strain rates. This paper deals with the investigation of the effect of temperature and strain rate sensitivity on the formability of AA 5754 aluminum alloy. Tensile tests were carried out at temperatures of 20,100,180 and 260°C and forming rates of 25, 100 and 250 mm/min. The mechanical properties and flow curves were obtained and the strain rate sensitivities were calculated at different strains and temperatures. The effects of temperature and strain rate sensitivity on the formability were introduced.

Investigation on Earing Behavior of AA 2024-T4 and AA 5754-O Aluminum Alloys

Deep drawn parts usually have different wall heights because of earing behavior. This behavior is due to the planar anisotropy (Δr) of sheet metals. A measure of the variation of normal anisotropy with the angel to the rolling direction in sheet plane is known as planar anisotropy. If the magnitude of the planar anisotropy is relatively large as absolute value, the earing behavior becomes more effective so larger ears occur. Furthermore, the orientation of the sheet with respect to the die or the part to be formed will be important. In addition, cutting of scraps in the parts which have ears leads to material waste. The scope of this study is to determine the planar anisotropy of AA 5754-O and AA 2024-T4 aluminum alloys and to investigate the earing behavior by the way of deep drawing of cylindrical cups.

Comparison of Flow Curves of AA 5457-O Sheet Material Determined by Hydraulic Bulge and Tensile Tests at Warm Forming Temperatures

The deformation behavior of sheet materials changes according to temperature. It is possible that the formability of a material for different temperatures is investigated and the flow curves are obtained by using a hydraulic bulge test. Generally, biaxial stress state occurs in real forming processes. Flow curves can be derived from the hydraulic bulge test for the biaxial stress state, and the higher strain values can be achieved in comparison to the tensile test without extrapolation. Hydraulic bulge tests are preferred instead of tensile tests on account of presuming the problems can occur during the formation process of sheet material, being informed about the formability of material at the current pressure and temperature states, and obtaining flow curves to perform more accurate process simulations. In this study, the flow curves for the material AA5754-O were obtained using the warm bulge test and by considering the strain rates. The sections of the curves that can be used in simulation were identified, and these curves were comparatively investigated with respect to the curves obtained from the tensile test. In addition, case studies were performed in order to conduct more realisitic simulations using the results of the flow curves obtained from the bulge and tensile tests.

A new method for determining limit strains of materials that show post-uniform elongation behavior:

In this study, a new method is proposed to determine limit strains at the onset of localized necking for ductile materials that show post-uniform elongations. The new method is first applied for AA 5754-O using the ISO 12004-2 forming limit diagram determination standard. The method is also applied for ductile materials of 7114 steel, 304 stainless steel, and CuZn37 brass and finally for AA 2024-T4 having brittle fracture behavior. The results indicate that the new proposed method is quite successful, easy, and accurate for ductile materials that show post-uniform elongations.

Finite Element Analysis and Experimental Validation of Warm Hydromechanical Deep Drawing Process

This study intended to establish finite element analysis (FEA) model of warm hydro mechanical deep drawing process (WHMD) of cylindrical cups by means of commercial FEA package Ls-Dyna The validity of established FEA model is verified by means of WHMD experiments through several studies. It was noted that the established model successfully simulated the real process leading to significant cost and time spent on trial-error stage in hydromechanical deep-drawing of lightweight alloys.

A Study on DOE Methods for Hydromechanical Deep Drawing Process Parameters

Formability of sheet metals can be increased by Hydromechanical Deep Drawing (HDD) process. Formability of the deep drawn cups is generally assessed by Limiting Drawing Ratio (LDR) which is the ratio of the blank diameter to punch diameter. In order to increase LDR by HDD, process parameters of the HDD should be arranged properly. Arranging of the process parameters requires a great knowledge about the effects of the process parameters to certain performance criteria of the process. Determining of the effects of the process parameters by full factorial experiments is a hard duty. Hence certain statistical methods that decrease the number and the cost of the experiments and reduce the time should be used to find effective parameters and their appropriate levels. In this study orthogonal experimental array was applied and effective process parameters were determined by analyzing predicted data with Taguchis robust parameter design method and ANOVA method. Then the results were compared with each other to evaluate differences between the methods. By using the appropriate levels of the parameters the LDR of AA 5754 aluminum alloy which uses in automotive industry intensely was determined.

Investigation on the optimal geometrical parameters for cylindrical cups in warm hydromechanical deep drawing process

Warm sheet hydroforming process has being investigated in recent years with its high formability feature. Warm hydromechanical deep drawing (WHDD) which is a type of the warm sheet hydroforming process is important for deeper parts. To determine the formability of the WHDD process the most convenient tool is Limiting Drawing Ratio (LDR). But determination of the LDR accurately needs using of the most convenient tool dimensions. In this study optimal geometrical parameters were investigated by FE Analyses of the process. Consequently optimum punch and die diameters and optimum punch nose and die entrance radiuses were determined for accurate LDR value.