Numerical Investigation on Incremental Forming Process of an Elastoplastic Functionally Graded Material

Abstract

Incremental forming process is an emerging processing technology that has attracted considerable attention just recently. This kind of flexible sheet metal forming process adopted to produce complex shapes without the need of expensive and specific tools. The movement of a hemispherical punch creates highly localized deformation on the sheet metal in order to obtain the desired shape. The current work presents a numerical investigation, which is made on the feasibility of using a Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) process to deform an elastoplastic Functionally Graded Material (FGM) sheet. Comparative study is developed in the presented research to show the effect of the FGM sheet’s constituent phases arrangement on the mechanical response of a part deformed by the SPIF process. The main contribution of this research is to predict the FGM sheet’s behavior when the hemispherical forming tool is moved during the simulation from a less rigid face (Aluminum) to a more rigid face (Titanium). The obtained results indicate the applications and practices of the SPIF manufacturing process with respect to FGM sheet. This numerical study illustrates a valuable guide for new products not already studied in the literature, to predict a thin FGM sheet's mechanical behavior deformed by a SPIF process.