MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THE CAN-MAKING PROCESS USING SOLID FINITE-ELEMENTS

The aim of this paper is to simulate the complex stress- and deformation-history imposed on the material during cupping. The equilibrium equations are satisfied at the end of each increment, whilst the boundary conditions are adjusted after reaching the (quasi-static) equilibrium of the sheet. The latter is treated as a thick shell and discretized into solid finite elements: this allows the accurate evaluation of the contact forces and the through-thickness gradients during deformation phases where both sides of the sheet are controlled by the tooling.