FEA Simulation Analysis of Tube Hydroforming Process Using DEFORM-3D

Abstract

Tube hydro-forming (THF) one of the attractive forming process for the production of hollow tubes. number of applications of THF are known in the automotive and aerospace industry where more intricate geometries formed from tubes and extrusions. They are characterized by the use of tubes, thus allowing an extended different variety of shapes. Now a day, the automotive industry is showing interest in THF. The benefits of THF can, for instance, be combined with the high strength of extra high strength steels, which are usually less formable, to produce structural automotive components which exhibit lower weight and improved service performance. Design and production of tubular components require knowledge about tube material behaviour and tribological effects during hydro-forming and how the hydro-forming operation itself should be controlled.The THF process is a relatively complex manufacturing process; the performance of this process depends on various factors and requires proper combination of part design, material selection and boundary conditions. Due to the complex nature of the process, the behaviour of the process will be done in the simulation study. The simulation model will be prepared and analyzed by FEM tool DEFORM-3D. The main object of the proposed study is to examine the influence of various factors like friction between the dies and tube blank, axial plunger feeding and internal pressure on bulge height and thickness variations by using DEFORM-3D solver.