Comparative investigations on numerical modeling for warm hydroforming of AA5754-O aluminum sheet alloy

This study aimed to determine the proper combinations of numerical modeling conditions (e.g. solver, element type, material model) for warm hydroforming of AA5754-O aluminum alloy sheets. Assessment of finite element analyses (FEA) is based on comparison of numerical results and experimental measurements obtained from closed-die forming, hydraulic bulge and tensile tests at different temperature (25–300 °C) and strain rate (0.0013–0.013 1/sec) levels. Thinning (% t) and cavity filling ratios (CFR) on the formed parts were taken as comparison parameters. Several numerical analyses employing different element types, solution methods and material models were performed using the commercially available FEA package LS-Dyna to determine the best combination of modeling options to simulate the actual warm hydroforming operation as accurately as possible. Analyses showed that relatively better predictions were obtained using isotropic material model, shell elements and implicit solution technique when compared with experimental results.

Research highlights
► Warm hydroforming of AA5754-O was investigated both experimentally and numerically.
► Various FEA solution techniques, element types, material models were employed.
► The effects of materials models, solution algorithms on numerical solution were investigated.
► Best combinations of FEA parameters that yield closer result to experimental data were determined.