Numerical Modeling of a Hybrid Forming Process for Three-Dimensionally Curved Fiber-Metal Laminates

Fiber-metal laminates (FML) are known for their excellent fatigue properties and for lightweighting. As a result, they are widely used in the aviation industry for the fuselage. The geometric complexity of these parts is limited to small one-dimensional and two-dimensional curvatures. To use FMLs for various industries, such as the automotive industry, new manufacturing techniques are needed to increase the formability of FMLs for more complex geometries. A new approach is the combination of deep drawing with thermoplastic resin transfer molding (T-RTM). This process makes it possible to produce three-dimensional FMLs in just one process step from the raw materials (metal sheet and dry fiber fabric) without preliminary stages, such as forming of textile or metal sheet. The process was developed based on a generic cup-shaped geometry. To use it for more complex geometries, numerical tools are needed for the prediction of forming behavior for part and tool design. The aim of this paper is to show a first approach to model this combined process for the tested generic geometry. With this approach, the interaction between the different deformation behaviors of the metal and the textile as well as their influence on the forming result of the hybrid fiber-metal laminate will be investigated.