Effects of Geometry Parameters on Mechanical Expanding of Large Diameter Welding Pipe

Abstract

Mechanical expanding is widely used in production of large diameter submerged-arc welding pipes. To improve welded pipe quality, it is necessary to investigated effects of geometry parameters on mechanical expanding forming process. So, effects of geometry parameters on mechanical expanding is obtained using finite element method.. Taking the expanding of X80 steel Φ1219mm×22mm×12000mm welding pipe for instance, the mechanical expanding forming process is simulated by finite element (FE) code ABAQUS. In this paper, the simulation data is validated by experiments and a comparison showed a good agreement with experiments results. The effects of geometry parameters on mechanical expanding are discussed. Thus, the result of research provides a basis to improve welded pipe quality.