Cutting Strategy for the Numerical Simulation of Multi-Stage Forming of Thick Metal Sheets

Abstract

The cutting stage is an essential step in the process of multi‐stage forming of metal sheets. In this work, a robust cutting strategy is thoughtfully described.The cutting strategy involves the following steps: the reading of the cutting line geometry and parameters; the projection of the cutting lines over the blank to cut; the regeneration of the FEM mesh in the vicinity of the projected lines, the removal of the finite elements that were cut off; the smoothing of simulation variables at nodal and gauss‐point levels.To validate the proposed procedure, four industrial examples are given including 3D geometries discretized with isoparametric hexahedra and BST shell elements.The results show that the whole process of multi‐stage forming of thick metal sheets can be successfully simulated employing this cutting strategy.