An upper-bound approach to plane-strain problems using a general triangular element

Abstract

This paper investigates an upper-bound elemental approach to plane-strain deformation of rigid, perfectly plastic material. A kinematically admissible velocity field based on nodal velocities is derived from a proposed arbitrarily triangular element. From the derived velocity field, the upper-bound forming load and deformation configuration are determined by optimizing independent parameters related to the velocity field. This new element formulation can be applied to diversified plane-strain metal-forming problems, even though only the application to strip forging is discussed in this paper.