Numerical Study of Incremental Sheet Forming Processes

In incremental sheet forming processes, materials are deformed by continuous local contact with a moving tool along predefined tool paths so that their stress or strain histories are significantly different from conventional forming processes such as stamping, drawing, and hydroforming. In this work, numerical conditions, e.g., a rigid surface type, an initial blank size, an element type, and a contact algorithm commonly assumed for the conventional forming, were re-investigated to confirm whether those assumptions are still valid for the incremental sheet forming. An aluminium alloy sheet, AA7075-O, with a thickness of 1.64mm was considered for this work. The simulation results were compared regarding stress or strain paths at the critical elements, an effective strain distribution, a thickness profile, and reaction forces and moments of the tool. The computational time was also compared, in order to identify optimum simulation conditions.