Analysis of Sheet Metal Forming Operations by a Stress Resultant Constitutive Law

Sheet metal forming is simulated by finite element methods using a stress resultant constitutive law in this paper. A Lagrangian description of axisymmetric and plane-strain shell deformation is first reviewed. Then a stress resultant constitutive law in rate form is presented, where the effect of thickness reduction due to large plastic deformation is considered. A finite element formulation in terms of stress resultants and their work-conjugate generalized strain rates is derived based on the virtual work principle. A hemispherical punch stretching operation and a plane-strain draw operation are simulated by a finite element program based on the finite element formulation. The results of these finite element simulations are in good.agreement with those using the through-the-thickness integration method. The results of the hemispherical punch stretching simulation suggest that the coupling term of moments and membrane forces of the modified Ilyushin yield function should be eliminated to avoid numerical instability under stretching-dominated conditions for this rate-independent plasticity formulation. Further, the results suggest that the hardening rule in a power-law form based on the small-strain approach must be modified to take account for finite deformation effects of combined stretching and bending. Under the plane-strain draw operation, the sheet experiences a large amount of bending before the final stretching. The simulation based on the stress resultant constitutive law can produce this essential aspect of deformation pattern as that of the throughthe-thickness integration method, whereas a simulation based on a membrane theory cannot. In conclusion, the results of these simulations indicate that a finite element program based on the stress resultant constitutive law can simulate sheet-forming processes with much shorter computational time than that based on the through-the-thickness integration method.