Tube thinning control without wrinkling occurring is a key problem urgently to be solved for improving the forming qualities in numerical control （NC） bending processes of large-diameter Al-alloy thin-walled tubes （AATTs）. It may be a way solving this problem to exert axial compression loads （ACL） on the tube end in the bending. Thus, this article establishes a three-dimensional （3D） elastic-plastic explicit finite element （FE） model for the bending under ACL and has its reliability verified. Through a multi-index orthogonal experiment design, a combination of process parameters, each expressed by a proper range, for this FE model is derived to overcome the compression instability on tube ends. By combining the FE model with a wrinkling energy prediction model, an in-depth study is conducted on the forming characteristics of large-diameter AATTs with small bending radii and it can be concluded that （1） The larger the tube diameters and the smaller the bending radii, the larger the induced tangent tension stress zones on tube intrados, by which the tube maximum tangent compression stress zones will be partitioned in the bending processes; thus, the smaller the ACL roles in decreasing thinning degrees and the larger the compression instability possibilities on tube ends. （2） The tube wrinkling possibilities under ACL are larger than without ACL acting in the earlier forming periods, and smaller in the later ones. （3） For the tubes with a size factor less than 80, the ACL roles in decreasing thinning degrees are stronger than in increasing wrinkling possibilities.
Thin-walled tube numerical control （NC） bending is a tri-nonlinear physical process with multi-defect and multi-die constraints. The clearance on each contact interface is the major factor to indicate the contact conditions. A three-dimensional-finite element （3D-FE） model is established to consider the realistic dynamic boundary conditions of multiple dies under ABAQUS/Explicit platform. Combined with experiment, numerical study on bending behavior and bendability under different clearance between tube and various dies is conducted in terms of wrinkling, wall thinning and cross section deformation. The results show that （1）with smaller clearance of tube-wiper die and tube-mandrel, the wrinkling can be restrained while the wall thinning It and cross-section deformation Id increase; while excessive small clearance blocks tube materials to flow past tangent point and causes piles up, the onset of wrinkling enhances It and Id. （2）Both It and Id decrease with smaller clearance of tube-pressure die; the wrinkling possibility rises with larger clearance on this interface if the mandrel’s freedom along Y-axis is opened; smaller clearance of tube-bend die prevents wrinkling while increases It, and the clearance on this interface has little effect on Id. （3）A modified Yoshida buckling test （YBT） is used to address the wrinkling mechanisms under normal constraints in tube bending： the smaller clearance may restrain wrinkling efficiently; the smaller wall thickness, the less critical clearance needed; the critical clearance for tube bending 38 mm×1 mm×57 mm （tube outer diameter×wall thickness×centerline bending radius） equals about 20% of initial wall thickness.
The wrinkling has become the main defect in the thin-walled tube NC bending process. In the study, a dynamic explicit FE model for aluminum alloy thin-walled tube NC bending process is developed to predict the wrinkling by using FE code ABAQUS/Explicit. Attention was paid to the influences of mass scaling, loading rate scaling, mesh density and element type on accurate wrinkling prediction. So the wrinkling modes and mechanism are revealed based on the reliable FE model. Then a two step strategy is proposed to capture the critical bifurcation point for the optimal design process. The results show: 1) The boundary conditions determine the tube materials response greatly so that the frequency analysis is meaningless to the simulation. It is the contact conditions that make the effect of the mass scaling and loading rate less significant.2) There are two wrinkling modes in the tube bending process. One refers to that local ripples occur initially in the straight regions contacted with wiper die and mandrel; the other refers to that local wrinkles occur in the curved regions due to the relative slipping between tube and clamp die. 3) Both the difference of the in-plane compressive stresses and the relative slipping distance are chosen to be the quantitative indexes to represent the critical point and wrinkling tendency. The experiment of aluminum alloy (5052 O) tube bending was carried out to verify whether the above wrinkle modes exist and the indexes proposed are reasonable to catch the critical bifurcation point. The results may help better understanding of the wrinkling mechanism and the process optimization of the tube bending.
Numerical control(NC) bending experiments with different process parameters were carried out for 5052O aluminum alloy tubes with outer diameter of 70 mm, wall thickness of 1.5 mm, and centerline bending radius of 105 mm. And the effects of process parameters on tube wall thinning and cross section distortion were investigated. Meanwhile, acceptable bending of the 5052O aluminum tubes was accomplished based on the above experiments. The results show that the effects of process parameters on bending process for large diameter thin-walled aluminum alloy tubes are similar to those for small diameter thin-walled tubes, but the forming quality of the large diameter thin-walled aluminum alloy tubes is much more sensitive to the process parameters and thus it is more difficult to form.
＜正＞ The numerical control （NC） precision bending process of thin-walled tube is one of advanced plastic formin...
ZHAN Mei, YANG He, JIANG Zhi-qiang, ZHAO Zhen-song, LIN Yan(1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University,Xi’an 710072, China
