This study focuses on hot and warm forming properties of aluminum alloy AA5182 sheet, with attention toward warm forming, by using gas pressure to form sheet material. A temperature range of 300°C to 450°C and a pressure range of 690 kPa (100 psi) to 2410 kPa (350 psi) were used in a test matrix of twenty one different test conditions for gas-pressure forming of a sheet into hemispherical dome in a gas-pressure bulge test. Multiple sets of tensile data were used to develop a material model that predicts the dome height and shape of an axisymmetric bulge specimen at any given time during forming. In simulations of the forming process, 17 simulations of the total 21 experimental conditions showed good agreement with the experimentally measured dome heights throughout forming tests. The four cases that did not show good agreement between simulation and experiment are a result of strain-hardening in the material during forming. Strain hardening was not significant in tension testing of specimens and was not accounted for in the material model, which considered only strain rates slower than for these experimental bulge testing. This demonstrates an effect which must be considered in future simulations to predict forming approaching warm conditions. Two experimental bulge specimens were cross-sectioned post forming and grain sizes were measured to determine if grain growth occurred during the forming process. Experimental bulge specimens show no grain growth during the forming process. The tensile specimens from which the material model data were taken were measured to determine if plastic anisotropy was a possible issue. All specimens measured were proved to have deformed nearly isotropically. The results of this study show that predicting warm and hot forming of aluminum alloy AA5182 using gas pressure is possible, but that a more complex material model will be required for accurate predictions of warm forming. This is a very important step toward making hot and warm forming commercially viable mass production techniques. / text

Magnesium alloy tubes have good formability at elevated temperatures. In this paper, firstly, uniaxial tensile tests are conducted to evaluate the flow stress of AZ61 magnesium alloy at different temperatures and strain rates. Secondly, a hydraulic warm forming machine with axial feeding, counter punch and internal pressure is designed and manufactured. Using this testing machine with the FEM results, experiments of hydraulic forming of AZ61 magnesium alloy tubes at different temperatures are carried out. The effect of loading paths on the product shape and formability at different temperature are discussed.

The current research addresses the formability of two magnesium sheet alloys, a conventional AZ31B and a rare earth alloyed ZEK100. Both alloys had a nominal thickness of 1.6 mm. Both Limiting Dome Height (LDH) and Cylindrical Cup Draw experiments were performed between room temperature and 350°C. To examine the effect of sheet directionality and anisotropy, LDH experiments were performed in both the sheet rolling and transverse directions. In addition, strain measurements were performed along both sheet orientations of the cylindrical cup and LDH specimens for which the geometry is symmetric. The LDH tests were used to study the formability of ZEK100 and AZ31B (O and H24 tempers) magnesium alloy sheet between room temperature and 350°C. At room temperature, AZ31B-O and AZ31B-H24 exhibit limited formability, with dome heights of only 11-12 mm prior to the onset of necking. In contrast, the dome heights of ZEK100 at room temperature reached 29 mm (a 140% improvement over AZ31B). Increasing the temperature above 200°C did not affect the relative ranking of the three sheet samples, however it did reduce the magnitude of the difference in dome heights. The rare earth alloyed ZEK100 had pronounced benefits at intermediate temperatures, achieving an LDH of 37 mm at 150°C; this dome height was only reached by AZ31B at a much higher temperature of 250°C. To further characterize the formability of ZEK100, forming limit curves (FLCs) were developed from the LDH tests in both the rolling and transverse directions. Comparisons to AZ31B were made at selected temperatures. Surface strain data was collected with an in situ digital image correlation (DIC) system incorporating two cameras for stereo observation. Results from these experiments further highlighted the enhanced formability relative to AZ31B over the entire temperature range between room temperature and 350°C, with the most dramatic improvements between room temperature and 150°C. The plane strain forming limit (FLC0) for ZEK100 at 150°C was 0.4 which equals that of AZ31B at 250°C. At higher temperatures (300°C), the two alloys exhibited similar performance with both achieving similar dome heights at necking of 37 mm (AZ31B) and 41 mm (ZEK100). To round out the investigation of ZEK100 for industrial applications, cylindrical cup deep drawing experiments were performed on ZEK100 sheet between 25°C and 250°C under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. Draw ratios of 1.75, 2.00 and 2.25 were considered to examine the effects of draw ratio on draw depth. The effect of sheet anisotropy during deep drawing was investigated by measuring the earring profiles, sheet thickness and strain distribution along both the rolling and transverse directions. Isothermal test results showed enhanced warm temperature drawing performance of ZEK100 over AZ31B sheet; for example, a full draw of 203.2 mm (8”) blanks of ZEK100 was achieved with a tool temperature of 150°C, whereas a tool temperature of 225°C was needed to fully draw AZ31B-O blanks of this diameter. Non-isothermal deep draw experiments showed further improvement in drawability with significantly lower tooling temperatures required for a full cup draw using ZEK100. ZEK100 achieved a full draw of 228.6 mm (9") blanks with a die and blank holder temperature of 150°C and a cooled punch (25°C) while the same size blank of AZ31B required a die and blank holder temperature 225°C and a cooled punch (150°C). Temperature process windows were developed from the isothermal and non-isothermal results to show a direct comparison of drawing behaviour between ZEK100 and AZ31B. Overall, ZEK100 offers significantly improved forming performance compared to AZ31B, particularly at temperatures below 200°C. This lower temperature enhanced formability is attractive since it is less demanding in terms of lubricant requirements and reduces the need for higher temperature tooling.

Warm forming of aluminum alloys of has shown promising results for increasing the formability of aluminum alloy sheet. Warm forming is a term that is generally used to describe a sheet metal forming process, where part or all of the blank is formed at an elevated temperature of less than one half of the material’s melting temperature. The focus of this work is to study the effects of warm forming on Novelis X926 clad aluminum brazing sheet. Warm forming of clad aluminum brazing sheet, which is commonly used in automotive heat exchangers has not been studied. This work can be split into three main goals: i) to characterize the material behavior and develop a constitutive model, ii) to experimentally determine the effects of warm forming on deep drawing; and, iii) to create and validate a finite element model for warm forming of Novelis X926. For an accurate warm forming material model to be created, a temperature and rate dependant hardening law as well as an anisotropic yield function are required. Uniaxial isothermal tensile tests were performed on 0.5mm thick Novelis X926at 25°C (room temperature), 100°C, 150°C, 200°C, and 250°C. At each temperature, tests were performed with various strain rates between 7.0 E -4 /sec and 7.0 E -2 /sec to determine the strain rate sensitivity. Tensile tests were also performed at 0° (longitudinal), 45° (diagonal), and 90° (transverse) with respect to the material rolling direction in order to assess the anisotropy of the material. It was found that increasing forming temperature increases elongation to failure by 200%, decreases flow stress by 35%, and increases strain rate sensitivity. Barlat’s Yield 2000 yield function (Barlat et al., 2003a) and the Bergström work hardening law (van den Boogaard and Huétink , 2006) were found to accurately method model the material behavior. Warm deep drawing of 101.6 mm (4”) diameter cylindrical cups was performed using specially designed tooling with heated dies and a cooled punch. Deep drawing was performed on 228.6 mm (9“) and 203.2 mm (8”) diameter blanks of 0.5 mm thick Novelis X926. Deep drawing was performed with die temperatures ranging from 25°C to 300°C with a cooled punch. Teflon sheet and Dasco Cast 1200 lubricants were used in experiments. Different punch velocities were also investigated. 228.6 mm diameter blanks, which could not be drawn successfully at room temperature, were drawn successfully using 200°C dies. Increasing the die temperature further to 250°C and 300°C provided additional improvement in formability and reduced tooling loads. Increasing the punch velocity, increases the punch load when forming at elevated temperatures, reflecting the strong material rate sensitivity at elevated temperatures. A coupled thermal mechanical finite element model was developed using the Bergström hardening rule and the Yield 2000 yield surface using LS-DYNA. The model was found to accurately predict punch force for warm deep drawing using Teflon sheet as a lubricant. Results for Dasco Cast 1200 were not as accurate, due to the difficulties in modeling the lubricant’s behavior. Finite element simulations demonstrated that warm forming can be used to reduce thinning at critical locations, compared to parts formed at room temperature.

Weight reduction is a hot topic in automotive industry. Both the applications of tube hydroforming technique and magnesium alloys offer a large potential for reducing the weight of automotive components. In this research, the relationship between forming pressure and bulge height, the maximum forming pressure and the forming limit during the tube hydraulic bulging process are first analysed. A self-designed warm hydraulic bulge forming equipment and the seamlessly extruted magnesium alloy AZ61 tubes, are used for carrying out a series of warm hydraulic bulge tests, and discussing the formalibility of the magnesium tubes at various temperatures. Furthermore, the flow stress curves are determined by the mathematical model in this paper with the bulge forming test results. Then the validity of the analytical model is verified by comparing the forming pressure and bulge height between analytical and experimental values.

Warm forming of aluminum alloys of has shown promising results for increasing the formability of aluminum alloy sheet. Warm forming is a term that is generally used to describe a sheet metal forming process, where part or all of the blank is formed at an elevated temperature of less than one half of the material’s melting temperature. The focus of this work is to study the effects of warm forming on Novelis X926 clad aluminum brazing sheet. Warm forming of clad aluminum brazing sheet, which is commonly used in automotive heat exchangers has not been studied. This work can be split into three main goals: i) to characterize the material behavior and develop a constitutive model, ii) to experimentally determine the effects of warm forming on deep drawing; and, iii) to create and validate a finite element model for warm forming of Novelis X926. For an accurate warm forming material model to be created, a temperature and rate dependant hardening law as well as an anisotropic yield function are required. Uniaxial isothermal tensile tests were performed on 0.5mm thick Novelis X926at 25°C (room temperature), 100°C, 150°C, 200°C, and 250°C. At each temperature, tests were performed with various strain rates between 7.0 E -4 /sec and 7.0 E -2 /sec to determine the strain rate sensitivity. Tensile tests were also performed at 0° (longitudinal), 45° (diagonal), and 90° (transverse) with respect to the material rolling direction in order to assess the anisotropy of the material. It was found that increasing forming temperature increases elongation to failure by 200%, decreases flow stress by 35%, and increases strain rate sensitivity. Barlat’s Yield 2000 yield function (Barlat et al., 2003a) and the Bergström work hardening law (van den Boogaard and Huétink , 2006) were found to accurately method model the material behavior. Warm deep drawing of 101.6 mm (4”) diameter cylindrical cups was performed using specially designed tooling with heated dies and a cooled punch. Deep drawing was performed on 228.6 mm (9“) and 203.2 mm (8”) diameter blanks of 0.5 mm thick Novelis X926. Deep drawing was performed with die temperatures ranging from 25°C to 300°C with a cooled punch. Teflon sheet and Dasco Cast 1200 lubricants were used in experiments. Different punch velocities were also investigated. 228.6 mm diameter blanks, which could not be drawn successfully at room temperature, were drawn successfully using 200°C dies. Increasing the die temperature further to 250°C and 300°C provided additional improvement in formability and reduced tooling loads. Increasing the punch velocity, increases the punch load when forming at elevated temperatures, reflecting the strong material rate sensitivity at elevated temperatures. A coupled thermal mechanical finite element model was developed using the Bergström hardening rule and the Yield 2000 yield surface using LS-DYNA. The model was found to accurately predict punch force for warm deep drawing using Teflon sheet as a lubricant. Results for Dasco Cast 1200 were not as accurate, due to the difficulties in modeling the lubricant’s behavior. Finite element simulations demonstrated that warm forming can be used to reduce thinning at critical locations, compared to parts formed at room temperature.

Les alliages d’aluminium, présentant un rapport résistance-poids élevé, sont capables de répondre aux exigences de réduction de masse et d’augmentation de sécurité dans la construction de nouveaux véhicules. Cependant, lors des opérations d’emboutissage, ces alliages présentent une plus faible formabilité et un retour élastique plus élevé que les aciers traditionnellement utilisés. L’emboutissage à température moyenne (qualifiée de tiède) apparaît comme une solution très intéressante pour résoudre ces problèmes. Néanmoins, l’emboutissage pour les alliages d'aluminium de la série 6000, reste toujours un défi car la gamme de température utilisée est proche de celle utilisée lors des traitements thermiques de ces alliages. Ainsi l’augmentation de la température peut entraîner un durcissement par précipitation. En outre, ces alliages sont susceptibles de vieillir naturellement. Tous ces changements doivent être prédits pour éviter des variations dans le process de production. Dans ce contexte, l'objectif principal de ce travail a été d'analyser les conditions d’emboutissage à tiède de deux alliages d’Al-Mg-Si (l'EN AW 6016-T4 et l'EN AW 6061-T6), afin de d’améliorer la robustesse des opérations d’emboutissage. Des essais de traction et des essais d’emboutissage de godets cylindriques en température ainsi que des mesures de retour élastique (essai dit de Demeri) ont été effectués. Plusieurs paramètres comme le vieillissement naturel, la durée de chauffe et la vitesse d’emboutissage ont été étudiés afin de proposer des solutions permettant d’améliorer la robustesse des opérations d’emboutissage. L’emboutissage à tiède se révèle être une solution efficace pour améliorer la formabilité, réduire le retour élastique et la variabilité causée par le vieillissement naturel. Cependant, utiliser des vitesses d’emboutissage élevées et une chauffe rapide sont nécessaire pour éviter le durcissement par précipitation pendant l’emboutissage. / Heat treatable aluminum alloys present a high strength-to-weight ratio, which replies to the requirements of mass reduction and safety increase in the construction of new vehicles. However, in sheet metal forming operations, these alloys have lower formability and higher springback than traditionally mild steels used. In this context, forming in warm temperature appears as an attractive solution to solve these problems. Nevertheless, there is still a challenge since the temperature range used in warm forming is similar to one used in the heat treatment of these alloys. Thus increasing the temperature can lead to precipitation hardening, which modifies the thermo- mechanical behavior of the material. In addition, these alloys are prone to natural aging that causes variability in forming operations and increases the amount of scrap. The present study addresses the warm forming of two heat-treated Al-Mg-Si alloys (EN AW 6016-T4 and EN AW 6061-T6), in order to propose solutions that can contribute to the increase of robustness of sheet metal forming operations. The influence of natural aging, temperature and exposure time has been studied by using uniaxial tensile tests, cylindrical cup tests and the split ring tests. The main goal is to propose solutions to improve the robustness of the sheet metal forming process. Warm forming proves to be an effective solution for improving formability, reducing the springback and variability caused by natural aging. However, high forming speeds and fast heating are necessary to prevent precipitation hardening during forming operations.

An experimental and numerical study of the isothermal and non-isothermal warm formability of an AA3003 aluminum alloy brazing sheet is presented. Forming limit diagrams were determined using warm limiting dome height (LDH) experiments with in situ strain measurement based on digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. Forming limit curves (FLCs) were developed at several temperature levels (room temperature, 100ºC, 200ºC, 250ºC, and 300ºC) and strain-rates (0.003, 0.018, and 0.1s-1). The formability experiments demonstrated that temperature has a significant effect on formability, whereas forming speed has a mild effect within the studied range. Elevating the temperature to 250C improved the formability more than 200% compared to room temperature forming, while forming at lower speeds increased the limiting strains by 10% and 17% at room temperature and 250ºC, respectively. Non-isothermal deep draw experiments were developed considering an automotive heat exchanger plate. A parametric study of the effects of die temperature, punch speed, and blank holder force on the formability of the part was conducted. The introduction of non-isothermal conditions in which the punch is cooled and the flange region is heated to 250C resulted in a 61% increase in draw depth relative to room temperature forming. In order to develop effective numerical models of warm forming processes, a constitutive model is proposed for aluminum alloy sheet to account for temperature and strain rate dependency, as well as plastic anisotropy. The model combines the Barlat YLD2000 yield criterion (Barlat et al., 2003) to capture sheet anisotropy and the Bergstrom (1982) hardening rule to account for temperature and strain rate dependency. Stress-strain curves for AA3003 aluminum alloy brazing sheet tested at elevated temperatures and a range of strain rates were used to fit the Bergstrom parameters, while measured R-values were used to fit the yield function parameters. The combined constitutive model was implemented within a user defined material subroutine that was linked to the LS-DYNA finite element code. Finite element models were developed based on the proposed material model and the results were compared with experimental data. Isothermal uniaxial tensile tests were simulated and the predicted responses were compared with measured data. The tensile test simulations accurately predicted material behaviour. The user material subroutine and forming limit criteria were then applied to simulate the isothermal warm LDH tests, as well as isothermal and non-isothermal warm deep drawing experiments. Two deep draw geometries were considered, the heat exchanger plate experiments developed as part of this research and the 100 mm cylindrical cup draw experiments performed by McKinley et al. (2010). The strain distributions, punch forces and failure location predicted for all three forming operations were in good agreement with the experimental results. Using the warm forming limit curves, the models were able to accurately predict the punch depths to failure as well as the location of failure initiation for both the isothermal and non-isothermal deep draw operations.

An experimental and numerical study of the isothermal and non-isothermal warm formability of an AA3003 aluminum alloy brazing sheet is presented. Forming limit diagrams were determined using warm limiting dome height (LDH) experiments with in situ strain measurement based on digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. Forming limit curves (FLCs) were developed at several temperature levels (room temperature, 100ºC, 200ºC, 250ºC, and 300ºC) and strain-rates (0.003, 0.018, and 0.1s-1). The formability experiments demonstrated that temperature has a significant effect on formability, whereas forming speed has a mild effect within the studied range. Elevating the temperature to 250C improved the formability more than 200% compared to room temperature forming, while forming at lower speeds increased the limiting strains by 10% and 17% at room temperature and 250ºC, respectively. Non-isothermal deep draw experiments were developed considering an automotive heat exchanger plate. A parametric study of the effects of die temperature, punch speed, and blank holder force on the formability of the part was conducted. The introduction of non-isothermal conditions in which the punch is cooled and the flange region is heated to 250C resulted in a 61% increase in draw depth relative to room temperature forming. In order to develop effective numerical models of warm forming processes, a constitutive model is proposed for aluminum alloy sheet to account for temperature and strain rate dependency, as well as plastic anisotropy. The model combines the Barlat YLD2000 yield criterion (Barlat et al., 2003) to capture sheet anisotropy and the Bergstrom (1982) hardening rule to account for temperature and strain rate dependency. Stress-strain curves for AA3003 aluminum alloy brazing sheet tested at elevated temperatures and a range of strain rates were used to fit the Bergstrom parameters, while measured R-values were used to fit the yield function parameters. The combined constitutive model was implemented within a user defined material subroutine that was linked to the LS-DYNA finite element code. Finite element models were developed based on the proposed material model and the results were compared with experimental data. Isothermal uniaxial tensile tests were simulated and the predicted responses were compared with measured data. The tensile test simulations accurately predicted material behaviour. The user material subroutine and forming limit criteria were then applied to simulate the isothermal warm LDH tests, as well as isothermal and non-isothermal warm deep drawing experiments. Two deep draw geometries were considered, the heat exchanger plate experiments developed as part of this research and the 100 mm cylindrical cup draw experiments performed by McKinley et al. (2010). The strain distributions, punch forces and failure location predicted for all three forming operations were in good agreement with the experimental results. Using the warm forming limit curves, the models were able to accurately predict the punch depths to failure as well as the location of failure initiation for both the isothermal and non-isothermal deep draw operations.

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