ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS HAVING INFLUENCE ON THE QUALITY OF BENT TUBULAR PARTS BY FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION OF THE FORMING PROCESS

Abstract

The paper presents a finite element model for the numerical simulation of the press bending of tubular parts. The finite element model is developed using the commercial code ABAQUS. The paper also presents the results of the simulation for different bending angles. Cold bending of metallic tubes is a very important production method, due to the fact that tubular parts are widely used in a variety of industrial products, such as automobiles, aircrafts, air conditioning equipment, air compressors, exhausting systems, fluid lines, etc. The objective of this paper is to study the change of the wall thickness using the finite element simulation. With this aim in view, a finite element model for the simulation of the press bending of tubes is developed. With the help of this finite element model, the influence of the bending angle on the change of the wall thickness is analyzed, both in the case of bending with internal pressure and in the case without pressure. The results show that the bending angle has a strong influence on the change of the wall thickness. It is also noticeable that smaller bending angles cause more important variations of the wall thickness. The change of the wall thickness can be reduced by applying an internal pressure on the tube surface during the bending process. Key words: metal forming, tubular parts, bending, finite element simulation