Analytical and Numerical Calculation of the Force and Power Requirements for Air Bending of Structured Sheet Metals

Abstract

Structured sheet metals with regular bumps offer higher stiffness compared to smooth sheet metals. They can be produced by a hydroforming process. The application of the structured sheet metals, however, is inhibited by the lack of knowledge for the subsequent processing steps. In this paper, the force and power requirements for air bending of structured sheet metals are calculated with a Finite Element Simulation (FE) and an analytical approach. In the first step, the hydroforming manufacturing process of the structured sheet metals is simulated in order to predict the exact geometry and the change in the material properties. Following, air bending simulations have been done taking into account the results of the hydroforming simulation. The FE-Simulations have been carried out with the software package LS-DYNA. The simulation models are validated with the optical displacement measuring system ARGUS and by a series of bending tests. For the analytical calculation the model based on the bending theory is adapted by simplifying the cross section of the structured sheet metals. The results of the FE-Simulation, the analytic calculation and the experiments are compared. The advantages and disadvantages as well as the application areas of the considered methods are indicated.

Corrosion Behavior of Brazed Zinc-Coated Structured Sheet Metal

“…Structured sheet metals have a hexagonal structure. The production method is hydroforming [10]. The sheet metals consist of stiffening elements with hexagonal bumps, whose dimensions are shown in Figure 1 and described in Table 1 with specific values.…”

“…Galvanized structured sheet metals could be applied in various fields such as automotive and construction industry [8] which also reflects the application fields of the arc brazing. Structured sheet metals were already qualified for further processing, especially in the field of metal forming [9,10], cutting [11,12], and welding [13][14][15][16][17]. Their mechanical properties were studied in [18,19].…”

Experimental Investigation and Analytical Calculation of the Bending Force for Air Bending of Structured Sheet Metals

“…The basic theory for the calculation of the bending moment is detailed considered in previous work [10]. The total bending moment M can be split in to two components c M -bending moment for all curved arias and s M -bending moment for all smooth arias:…”

“…Another purpose is to develop an analytical approach for calculation of the maximal bending force for structured sheet metals. In a previous work [10] the bending force was calculated with consideration of the changed mechanical properties of structured sheet metal. In present work this analytical approach has been improved using correction coefficients for the precise results.…”

Plasma Cutting of Structured Sheet Metals in Comparison with Laser Beam Cutting

“…The application of the structured sheet metals in automotive and railway industry, civil engineering and vessel construction needs the investigation of the processing technologies. Since few systematic investigations have been conducted on structured sheets in the field of characterization, forming, welding and joining technologies and corrosion behaviour until now [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8], there is a lack of knowledge about the further processing of these sheets by means of cutting technology. There is only one investigation in the field of laser beam cutting [9].…”