Drawing Process Analysis for Electrodeposited Nickel Coating by Finite Element Method

A finite element method is used to simulate the deep drawing processes of nickel coating with steel substrate into battery shells. The Belytschko-Wong-Chiang shell elements are used and the kinematical work hardening model is adopted, while the ties with failure contact criterion is given to the coating and substrate interface. The stress-strain field and interfacial stresses in the drawing processes are obtained. The nickel coating appeared to be yielded in the drawing processes, of which the maximum effective stress reached 241MPa, and the biggest effective strain reached 0.7524. The interfacial stresses in the coating and substrate varied during the drawing process, and their maximal values reached 40MPa in compressive state.