FE simulation of a steel thin-wall short-tube forming process.
Résumé
This article concerns the forming of a steel thin-wall short-tube by an innovative small surface contact deformation process. A Finite Element model was built to predict the forming of the workpiece. The model controls the complex kinematics of the process. The problems associated with contact control and computation time are also investigated. Compared with measurements taken by the industrial partner, the first results obtained are highly promising, with regard to predicting both the workpiece geometry and the forces acting on the tools.