A Numerical Investigation into the Bending of Metallic Laminate Sheet

Abstract

A finite element model to simulate the bending of tri-layer laminate metallic sheet was proposed, and the model was developed in the commercial finite element (FE) solver deform. The model was simulated under adiabatic conditions (thus assuming zero heat transfer), with room temperature material properties and an ambient atmosphere assumed throughout. The models used copper as the core layer, whilst the upper and lower face layers were alternated between an aluminium alloy Al 2017, a titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V, and a stainless steel 316L. Thus, room temperature mechanical properties for Ti-6Al-4V, copper, 316L stainless steel and 2017 Al alloy were entered into the model. FE predictions suggest that the material used in the face layers are of significant design importance, with variation in the peak strain in the face layers of around one-third, whilst significant variation in these layers for peak Von Mises stress, with Ti-6Al-4V and Al 2017 alloys was significantly closer to their ultimate tensile strength (UTS) values than 316L. However in the core copper layer the stress and strain predictions were largely unaffected. In models that mixed Al 2017 and 316L upper and lower face layers, significant differences in peak strains in the face layers were predicted, with the 316L layer suffering greater strains when paired with the Al 2017 alloy than paired with itself. A sensible locating of the materials in upper and lower face layers is predicted to give optimised stress and strain fields.