Experimental and Numerical Studies of Welded Tubes Formability

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical methodology which aims to improve 3D welded tube hydroforming formability. This methodology is based on elastoplastic constitutive equations accounting for non-linear anisotropic hardening. The experimental study is dedicated to the identification of material parameters (the parent and the heat-affected zones) using the global measure response of tube displacement, thickness evolution and internal pressure expansion. Applications are made to study numerically the effect of the anisotropic parameters, the hardening flow and the heat-affected zone shape on the hydro-formability of welded tubes.