Tube drawing process modelling by a finite element analysis

Drawing process is used in manufacturing thin-walled tubes, while reducing progressively their wall thickness and their inner and outer diameters. In this paper a stainless steel 316LVM and a cobalt alloy L605 are studied with two drawing processes, hollow sinking and plug drawing. This study gets into different issues including elastoplastic behaviour, contacts, friction and numerical convergence. Experimental drawings are realized on a testing bench where forces and dimensional data are recorded. In a first approach, tensile tests lead up to apply an elastoplastic constitutive equation with an isotropic hardening law. In simulations, an axisymetric steady-state model, with numeric stabilization if needed, is used. Numerical results are compared with experimental results. Finally, in spite of some defaults, this study shows that finite element modelling is able to foresee accurately the behaviour of a tube during a drawing process. A better understanding and modelling of the mechanical behaviour of materials will improve the FEM simulation results.