On the evaluation of superplastic characteristics using the finite element method

In recent years, there has been a considerable interest in the application of superplastic forming in the aircraft and automotive industries to realize complex parts. This requires a detailed design of the technological process in order to better exploit its peculiar potentialities. Nowadays, the finite element method represents the mainly used technique to plan the sheet metal forming processes whose simulation requires determination of material constants for superplastic materials. The aim of the present work is aimed to show a simple method to characterize superplastic materials. In this study, constant pressure free bulging for superplastic materials is analysed by finite element method and expressions to determine the constants of the superplastic materials have been proposed. In order to support the proposed method, numerical and experimental activities have been carried out which show the good reliability of values obtained from proposed expressions.