Coupled Sequential Process-Performance Simulation and Multi-Attribute Optimization of Thin-Walled Tubes

Abstract

Coupling of material, process, and performance models is an important step towards a fully integrated material-process-performance design. In this study, sheet-forming simulation is coupled with crush simulation to investigate the effect of manufacturing process and product design parameters on energy absorption characteristics of thin-walled tubes. The coupled process-performance simulation is integrated with a multi-objective design optimization approach for finding the optimum process and performance responses. Geometric attributes including the cross-sectional dimensions as well as manufacturing process parameters such as holder force, punch velocity, and friction coefficient are considered as design variables. Rupture and thinning are measured based on the result of deep drawing simulation in ABAQUS/EXPLICIT and the springback distortion is extracted from ABAQUS/STANDARD solver by including the residual stresses and dynamic and contact responses from deep drawing simulation. Energy absorption is measured by the mean and maximum crush force values from ABAQUS/EXPLICIT simulation that includes all the history variables from deep drawing and springback analyses. Surrogate models using radial basis functions are developed and used in multi-attribute process-performance optimization. Pareto optimal solutions are found and the sensitivity of process and performance responses to the selected design variables is evaluated. The results of coupled simulation and optimization are presented and discussed.