Determination of mechanical properties of anisotropic thin-walled tubes under three-dimensional stress state

Abstract

Tube hydro-bulging test is a specialized method to obtain the mechanical properties of tubes when they are deformed under bi-axial stress states. However, the normal stress cannot be ignored in double-sided tube hydroforming process. In order to investigate the mechanical properties of anisotropic thin-walled tubes under three-dimensional stress state, an analytical model for stress component calculation for fixed-end tube under internal and external pressures was proposed. Furthermore, the equivalent stress and the equivalent strain were derived using the Hill 1948 yield criterion through plastic increment theory. A thin-walled AA5052-O aluminum alloy tubes were bulged under different external pressures using a dedicated testing apparatus for double-sided tube hydro-bulging tests. Then, hardening curves considering anisotropy were obtained for each external pressure condition, respectively. It is shown that the strain hardening exponent of AA5052 tube shows a slight increase with the increasing external pressure, and the external pressure of 85 MPa has little or no effects on the hardening behavior of tubes. Moreover, the anisotropy has a little effect on the strain hardening exponent, but has an obvious influence on the strength coefficient of the AA5052 tube. Therefore, for the measurement of the AA5052 tube’s mechanical properties under three-dimensional stress state, the effect of external pressure can be ignored but the anisotropy of tubes must be considered.