Investigation of the effect of loading paths in the tube hydroforming process

Abstract EN

The precise control of internal pressure and axial feeding loading paths important influences the final tube quality.

In this research the impact of loading path of the tube hydroforming process and final part requirements ( i.e.

thickness specification and shape conformation) were studied numerically.

Small bulge shape tube hydroforming parts were utilized in the finite element analyses to get several guidelines on the effect of the relation between the internal pressure and axial compressive feeding programs.

Two dimension model of bulge shape tube (50 mm) bulge width has been developed from cylindrical tube with thickness (2mm) of the copper and (60 mm) outer diameter.

A commercial available finite element program code (ANSYS 11), is used to perform the numerical simulation of the tube hydroforming operation.

The results demonstrate that, the loading path has very important influenced on the thickness distribution over the tube and capability attained the target shape of the required product.