Influence of Material Property Variability on the Thickness in Sheet Metal Subjected to the Hydraulic Bulging

Abstract

Abstract. In the sheet metal forming processes, the inherent unavoidable noise in material property, which can vary inside and between batches as well as between suppliers, constitutes an important source of uncertainty which could result in rejection of some formed parts. In the process design phase, a successful tool for the sensitivity analysis proved to be the finite element codes, in which case the material parameters are used as input into the yield criterion. This paper investigates the thickness sensitivity due to the noise in material property using the finite element simulation of hydraulic bulge test. The BBC 2005 yield criterion with eight constitutive parameters, which is implemented in the commercially finite element code AutoForm has been used in this study.