Sheet metal forming simulation

Today the metal forming industry is making increasing use of simulation to evaluate the performing of dies, processes and blanks prior to building try-out tooling. Finite element analysis (FEA) is the most common method of simulating sheet metal forming operations to determine whether a proposed design will produce parts free of defects such as fracture or wrinkling. Today the metal forming industry is making increasing use of simulation to evaluate the performing of dies, processes and blanks prior to building try-out tooling. Finite element analysis (FEA) is the most common method of simulating sheet metal forming operations to determine whether a proposed design will produce parts free of defects such as fracture or wrinkling. Sheet metal forming, which is often referred to as stamping, is a process in which a piece of sheet metal, referred to as the blank, is formed by stretching between a punch and a die. Deformation of the blank is typically limited by buckling, wrinkling, tearing, and other negative characteristics which makes it impossible to meet quality requirements or makes it necessary to run at a slower than desirable rate. Springback is a particularly critical aspect of sheet metal forming. Even relatively small amounts of springback in structures that are formed to a significant depth may cause the blank to distort to the point that tolerances cannot be held. New materials such as high strength steel, aluminum and magnesium are particularly prone to springback. Sheet metal forming is more of an art than a science. The design of the tooling, stamping process and blank materials and geometry are primarily done by trial and error. The traditional approach to designing the punch and die to produce parts successfully is to build try-out tools to check the ability of a certain tool design to produce parts of the required quality. Try-out tools are typically made of less expensive materials to reduce try-out costs yet this method is still costly and time-consuming. The first effort at simulating metalforming was made using the finite difference method in the 1960s to better understand the deep drawing process. Simulation accuracy was later increased by applying nonlinear finite element analysis in the 1980s but computing time was too long at this time to apply simulation to industrial problems. Rapid improvements over the past few decades in computer hardware have made the finite element analysis method practical for resolving real-world metal forming problems. A new class of FEA codes based on explicit time integration was developed that reduced computational time and memory requirements. The dynamic explicit FEA approach uses a central different explicit scheme to integrate the equations of motion. This approach uses lumped mass matrices and a typical time step on order of millionths of seconds. The method has proved to be robust and efficient for typical industrial problems. As computer hardware and operating systems have evolved, memory limitations that prevented the practical use of Implicit Finite Element Methods had been overcome. Using the implicit method time steps are computed based on the predicted amount of deformation occurring at a given moment in the simulation, thus preventing unnecessary computational inefficiency caused by computing too small time steps when nothing is happening or too large a time step when high amounts of deformation are occurring.