Use of FEA for Design of Part, Process and Tooling in the Metal Forming Processes- Hydroforming as a Case Study

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been proven to be a useful tool in recent decades for simulation of manufacturing processes to obtain reliable and precise information about the process, geometry and material parameters. For the tube hydroforming process, analysis of thinning, strain, and stress distribution on a deformed tube would determine the feasibility of forming a specific part. Moreover, the effects of different parameters can be investigated by varying important dimensions or loading conditions on common part and feature types. Hence, generic rules can be established for future problems. Optimized loading paths can be obtained by using adaptively controlled FEA techniques. In this paper, FE Analysis of various hydroform parts with varying complexity is presented. Comparisons of predictions with experimental measurements show good correlations for the models and used parameters. Results of this study can be further applied to eliminate defects, optimize process parameters, and predict die stresses for preventing premature die failure for similar cases.