Investigation of The Effect of Loading Paths in the Tube Hydroforming Process

Abstract

The control accurately of internal pressure, axial feeding and pathsof loading which have important influences on the final tube quality. In thisresearch an impact of loading path of the tube hydroforming process andfinal part requirements ( i.e. thickness specification and shape conformation)were studied numerically. Small bulge shape tube hydroforming parts wereutilized in the finite element analyses to get several guidelines on the effect ofthe relation between the internal pressure and axial compressive feedingprograms. Two dimension model of bulge shape tube (50 mm) bulge widthhas been developed from cylindrical tube with thickness (2mm) of the copperand (60 mm) outer diameter. A commercial available finite element programcode (ANSYS 11), is used to perform the numerical simulation of the tubehydroforming operation. The results demonstrate that, the loading path hasvery important influenced on the thickness distribution over the tube andcapability attained the target shape of the required product