Murat Dilmeç

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.

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.

Design of sheet hydroforming press body

In this research, the body of a sheet hydroforming press, which can produce an industrial product, was designed and dimensioned. Initially, the required pressure and forces to produce the industrial product were determined by finite element analysis. Then, structural analysis of the press body was conducted by using these forces in Solidworks Premium simulation module. The strain gauges were bonded on various critical areas of the press body. The strains were measured for various loading conditions and compared with the analysis results. According to the results obtained, the strain values obtained from the analysis and measured experimentally are in good agreement with each other.