Super-Plastic Forming of High Specific Strength Aluminum Alloys 2014-28-0040
Superplastic forming is a process designed for sheet material allowing elongation of several hundred percent. In superplastic forming process material is formed at particular strain rate at particular temperature with the application of pressure. The target strain rate is maintained by the varying the pressure during the forming process.
The most challenging part of superplastic forming is the prediction of range of variation of pressure to maintain the target strain rate. Though several analytical models, such as Dutta equation, for predicting the pressure are available, FEA simulation with the help of MSC Marc offers great advantage of predicting the pressure accurately. FEA simulation study also helps in predicting the thinning that occurs during forming. One can also study the effect of friction on the thinning characteristics.
The present paper discusses FEA simulation results of superplastic forming of Aluminium alloy. The FEA results are used for predicting the range of variation of pressure required to maintain the target strain rate during superplastic forming. The results of FEA simulation were used to predict the thinning of sheet metal that occurs during forming. Also the study of effect of friction on the thinning characteristics was carried out. All the simulation study was carried out with the help of commercial implicit non-linear FEA code MSC Marc.
