Effect of die corner radius on the formability and dimensional accuracy of tube shear bending

Abstract

Tube shear bending is a beneficial technique to realize considerable small bending radii. The authors have investigated the tube shear bending process of circular tubes experimentally. Moreover, an elastoplastic 3D finite element simulation has been conducted, aimed at clarifying the forming mechanism. Both the experiment and simulation results indicate that, in order to perform successful forming, the value of the applied pushing force on the tube must be appropriate. In this paper, the mechanism of defect generation was clarified. Two failure criteria were introduced and employed to recognize the occurrence of defects in the simulation. The effects of the die corner radius, as the main parameter, on the defect generation of circular A1050 aluminum tubes were investigated both by experiments and numerical simulation. From the results, the formability of tube on dies with different corner radii applying various pushing pressures was clarified. Moreover, the influence of the die radius on the dimensional accuracy of the deformed tube regarding cross-section ovality and thickness changes of the deformed tube was evaluated. The results of this study indicate that, whilst a small bending radius results in high cross-section ovality, increasing the die corner radius raises the wrinkling tendency of the tube. However, the die radius has a small effect on the suitable values of pushing pressure required for a successful shear bending deformation. Moreover, the effect of the die corner radius on the thickness strain of the deformed tube is insignificant.