Numerical Simulation of a Stretch Bending Process

Abstract

There are several difficulties associated with the numerical simulation of the stretch bending process of extruded components; the main ones are non-linear material behavior, geometrical non-linearities, modeling of boundary conditions, contact between die and specimen, springback during the unloading phase. Another very complex aspect is the calibration of the numerical model, as rather few experimental results are generally available. This paper deals with a numerical simulation of a complete stretch bending process with the aim to select the most suitable numerical procedure oriented to the evaluation of the process-induced distortions and residual stresses; to validate the proposed procedure, numerical–experimental comparisons have been performed. The activities reported have been developed in collaboration with ALENIA Finmeccanica s.p.a. within the VI FP’s research project called COMPACT.