Tube Hydroforming: System Analysis and Process Design

Foreword 8 Executive Summary Designing a Tube HydroForming (THF) process means selecting and taking into account several different elements of the technology (see Figure 1). For this reason, the Tube HydroForming technology will be first analyzed as a system, i.e. each component of the system will be described and the most critical and advanced issues in R&D will be described. When designing a new process, problems and improvements in each area of the THF technology and their interaction should be considered. The discussion of the components of the THF system will be given in Part I. In Part II, the focus will be on the tools generally used and often required for designing and developing a new Tube HydroForming (THF) process or operation. As a general consideration, these tools are: 1) advanced software packages (such as Finite Element Analysis), 2) design guidelines and methods (including theoretical and empirical models for the description of the process), 3) systems, devices and methods for physical prototyping. The focus of Part II will be on software tools, and more precisely on the strategies used in Virtual Prototyping , i.e. computer simulation using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), which plays a major and key role. Both the input data for FEA (all the information coming from the system analysis, described in Part I) and the strategies (described in Part II) must be carefully selected in virtual prototyping, if an accurate and fast response is required. On of the most effective strategy for selection of process parameters is the Adaptive Simulation approach, which is thoroughly described and tested with different examples. Figure I- 1: the THF system (Part I) and the design tools (Part II)