Finite Element Simulation of Thermomechanical Spinning Process

Spinning is frequently used for manufacturing axisymmetric shapes where press tooling might not be justified on grounds of size and production volumes. Spinning also has the possibility of producing parts that could not be deep drawn. The temperature effect is significant on the metal forming processes; for the quality of products and the tools life are extremely affected by it. In this paper, a three-dimensional explicit finite-element analysis (FEA) is employed to simulate the spinning process of an aluminium circular sheet and also we investigate the thermal effects on the conventional spinning process by the explicit finite element method. The energy terms in this study include the plastic strain energy, the frictional sliding energy, and the heat transfer energy. The various mesh types are examined in the simulations. The main benefit of the proposed model will save the tremendous costs in the die designing and the experimental works. The parameters and techniques using in the numerical model are helpful for the design of forming process and the coupling thermal-mechanical analysis. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICM11