Finite element simulation of the clinching process of steel sheets and study on influence of anisotropy on the mechanical behavior of joint

This article describes a numerical study on the TOX-clinching process of the steel sheets. In addition, the influence of plastic anisotropy of the material on joining parameters is analyzed by evolution of the joint parameters such as undercut and neck thickness and punch force-displacement curve. Finite element analysis with ABAQUS/CAE-Explicit program is used to simulate two dimensional and three dimensional model of clinching process based on the above objectives. This work mainly represents the comparison between experimental and the simulation results with respect to process which gives the validation of the simulation results.Three-dimentional simulation of clinching process is used to study the effect of anisotropy. Results indicate that the clinching punch force-displacement curve for connection of anisotropic sheets is higher than that for isotropic sheets. In addition, results indicate that neck thickness increases with the effect of plastic anisotropy and the undercut decreases with it.