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Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, (2020), 33(2): 721–729

Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics


& Beihang University
Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
cja@buaa.edu.cn
www.sciencedirect.com

Material Engineering and Mechanical Manufacturing–Research Article

Finite element modelling and experimental


investigation of the impact of filling different
materials in copper tubes during 3D free bending
process
a,b a,b c,d,
Xunzhong GUO , Xuan CHENG , Yong XU * , Jie TAO
a,b c e
, Ali ABD EL-ATY , Hai LIU

a College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211100, China
b Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Nuclear Energy Equipment Materials Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Nanjing 211100, China
c Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
d School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
e Department of Precision Manufacturing Engineering, Suzhou Vocational Institute of Industrial Technology, Suzhou 215104, China

Received 17 September 2018; revised 24 October 2018; accepted 2 January 2019


Available online 13 August 2019

KEYWORDS Abstract 3D free bending process, an advanced metal forming technology, has attracted much attention
3D free bending; due to its unique geometrical flexibility and efficiency. Filling tubes with materials may effectively
Ellipticity; reduce the distortion in the cross-section area and restrain wrinkling and collapse of tube wall. In the
Filling bending; present study, the impacts of filling different materials on the copper tubes during 3D free bending
Finite element modelling; process were investigated. We have found that copper tubes filled with low melting point alloys could
Force model; Thickness induce the most uniform stress distribution, which result in better formability and moderate thickness
changing rates when compared to SS304 steel balls and PU rubbers. The lowest ellipticity reached to
1.467%.
2019 Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of Chinese Society of Aeronautics and
Astronautics. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
* Corresponding author at: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China.
Recently, tube bending technology has become one of the key
E-mail address: yxu@imr.ac.cn (Y. XU).
manufacturing technologies for lightweight product forming
Peer review under responsibility of Editorial Committee of CJA. because tubular geometries are employed in many high-end
industries,1 such as automobile, aerospace and aviation, where
lightweight and high-strength product from both materials and
Production and hosting by Elsevier structural aspects are increasingly used.2,3 As a new technology,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2019.02.016
1000-9361 2019 Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
722 X. GUO et al.

3D free bending technology has the great potential 4 to be suit-able deformation by introducing disconnect-type rigid mandrel and
for the most tubes and profiles because of its geometrical two PVC elastic mandrels with different shapes. Since finite
flexibility and efficiency. Hence, it can be used to produce com- element simulation is an effective tool to study the bend-ing
plex hollow tubes with asymmetric cross-sections and continu- process, Li, et al.25 established an analytical mandrel model to
ous varying radii.5 Also, the bending of different R values and select the mandrel parameters. Thereafter, they investigated the
angles can be achieved without changing the die, which greatly influence of mandrel on the stress distribution during the bending
extends the flexibility of the bending machine. On the other hand, process. Liu, et al.26 established models filled with rigid and PVC
during the tube bending process, wall thickness and cross section mandrels for E-typed and H-typed rotary draw bending of H96
changes are unavoidable. 6 However, due to the axial force, wall brass double-ridged rectangular tubes. They concluded that PVC
thickness and cross section changes are restrained during 3D free mandrel had better effects.
bending technology. From the aforementioned literature, it is crucial to fill the
Murata, et al.7 proposed free bending technology for the first materials like solid filling and flexible filling during 3D free
time to precisely bend complex hollow tubes and profiles with bending process to determine their effects. However, the study on
different radius without die change or re-clamping. They filling materials in reported studies is so far not systematic. In
presented calculations regarding the bending moment (M). particular, no comparison of formability and influence under
Beulich, et al.8 developed a finite element simulation model for different filling materials are so far presented. Most of recent
the free-bending process with 6 degrees of freedom and critical studies mainly focused on the influence of the solid fill-ing (e.g.,
parameters for the result of the bending process are therefore mandrel, steel balls, low melting point alloy) on formability.
evaluated and optimized. Based on the research results, Guo, et However, the influence of flexible fillings (e.g., PU rubber) on
al.9 proved the reliability of U–R relationship which is obtained formability of materials is still rarely investi-gated. Furthermore,
no related mechanical models are estab-lished to further study the
from FE modelling. Gantner, et al.10 devel-oped finite element
mechanisms affecting formability.
analysis (FEA) models to simulate the above bending technology
and the results were verified by bending experimental tests. In this study, different filling materials were used in copper
Furthermore, a theoretical model based on both kinematic and tubes during 3D free bending process in order to investigate the
mathematical simulation was introduced to determine the bend influences of filling materials on formability. To this end,
simulation and experiments were conducted to analyze the
die’s control data.11 Zhou, et al.12 utilized 3D free bending
process. A mechanical model was established to study the
technology to analyze features like bending trend, springback,
mechanism of the different filling materials on the final induced
side bending, and twisting of L-shaped aluminum under different
formability. Using the mechanical model, the effects of solid
bending conditions using simulations and experiments.
filling and flexible filling were investigated. Finally, finite
3D free bending is a dieless forming technology, making it element simulations combined with experiments were employed
hard to keep stable and restricted springback during the bend-ing to verify the theory.
process.13 However, several materials could be used inside the
tubes for supporting roles. These materials are not only used for 2. Theoretical analysis
restraining thickness changes and springback of the tubes, 14 but
also to further improve formability. Over the last few years, many As depicted in Fig. 1, during 3D free bending process, the internal
experimental and numerical methods have been used to side of the tube was subjected to compressive stress while the
investigate the effects of filling materials on form-ing limit and outside was influenced by tensile stress. This led to thickening of
formability during tube bending process.15 Com-bined with the internal side of the tube and reduction of its outside.
experiment and simulation, numerical study on bending behavior Meanwhile, the tube was subjected to feeding force, 27 so the
under different clearance between tube and various dies and neutral layer offset outwards to restrain reduc-tion of the wall
different bending radii is conducted in terms of wrinkling, wall thickness and reduce the deformation of the cross section of the
thinning and cross section deformation.16–18 Yang and Lin19 bent tube.
proposed a wrinkling wave function and established a simplified In Fig. 1, qa and qb are bending radius of inside and outside
wrinkling prediction model to predict the minimum bending wall of tube, respectively, t is the thickness of tube at any point
radius. Sedighi and Kahnamouei20 filled the tubes with low- and t0 is the initial thickness of tube, N is the interaction between
filling materials and tube, and P is the feeding force.
temperature melting metals and different types of rubbers to
compare the restricting defects, such as wrinkling and cross- In order to improve the accuracy of the theoretical model,
section distortion during bending of thin-walled tubes. Mandrel is some assumptions are necessary to be made and the relative
derivation processes are shown as following: The principal stress
widely used as filling material. For instance, Al-Qureshi 21
space in the deformation area is assumed to Cartesian coordinates
presented a novel technique for bending thin-walled tubes using
system of axial h, radial q and circumferential u axes, and it
flexible mandrel of elastomeric rod. They found that elastomer is
also suitable for use in the tube bending in other traditional meets the Hencky’s stress–strain relationships:
bending technologies. Rezaei, et al. 22 studied the effects of rq rh rh ru ru rq 1
polyurethane foam-filler on the axial splitting process of circular
composite tubes under the axial quasi-static loading, and found
that foam-filled circular tubes under the axial compression in the eq eh ¼ eh eu ¼ eu eq ðÞ
splitting process worked as good energy dissipater. Shen, et al. 23 Due to the existence of the feeding force, the deformation of
found that the position and the size of the mandrel greatly the cross-section is restrained, and the circumferential strain (eu)
influenced ovalization of the cross-section. Zhang, et al. 24 studied in plane is about equal to 0:
the effects of three different mandrels on the cross-sectional
eu ¼ 0 ð2Þ
Finite element modelling and experimental investigation of filling different materials in copper tubes 723

Fig. 1 Tube bending stress and strain analysis.

dq q

Z ð9-2Þ
qb
The tube is defined as incompressible material, and it corre- r r
qb qa ¼ ðrh rqÞdq=q
sponds with the law of volume invariance:
qa

eq þ eh þ eu ¼ 0 ð3Þ
Based on Eqs. (2) and (3), the equivalent strain can be given
as:
2
þ
e ¼ p eq 3 ð4Þ

ffiffiffi
where superscript + refers to absolute value of eq.
The radial strain eq can be approximately determined by the
dimensions of tube thickness:
t Dt
D

eq ¼ ln 1 þ t0 t0 ð5Þ
Considering Eq. (5), Eq. (4) can be rewritten as:
2 Dt þ

e ¼p 3 t0
ð6Þ

ffiffiffi

According to the Von-Mises yield condition:


2 2 2
rq rh þ rh ru þ ru rq ¼ 2k2f ð7Þ

where kf refers to flow stress.


By combination of Eqs. (1)–(3) and Eq. (7), the following
relations can be obtained:

2
rh rq ¼ sgnðdÞ p3 kf 8
ffiffi
d ¼ rh rq ðÞ
where sgnð Þ denotes as a sign function.
The equilibrium equations can be expressed as Eqs. (9-1)
and (9-2) in the radial direction:
Þ
drq þ rq rh ¼ 0 ð 9-1
Considering Eq. (8), Eq. (9-2) can be rewritten as:

2 qb
r r p
qb qa ¼ 3Z sgnðdÞ kfdq=q ð10Þ
q
ffiffiffi a

Then the boundary conditions at the outside and inside sur-


faces of tube are:
0
rqb¼N ð11Þ
r
qa ¼
Considering boundary conditions of Eq. (11), Eq. (10) can be
expressed as:
2 qb

N¼p 3Z sgnðdÞ kfdq=q ð12Þ


q
ffiffiffi
a

The following relations can be obtained using Eqs. (6) and


(12)
2 qb 2 t þ

N¼p 3
Z sgnðdÞ p 3
Y
t
0 dq=q ð13Þ

ffiffiffi
qa ffiffiffi

where Y denotes relationship between flow stress and the


equivalent strain.
Many laws have been developed to describe the relationship
between flowing stress and equivalent strain. All these laws are
based on Drucker postulate which is also usually referred as first
order convexity condition. From the Eq. (13), it can be concluded
that N is a function of Dt, and the uniform distribu-tion of N leads
to uniform distribution of Dt in the circumfer-ential direction.
From the Eqs. (5) and (6), it can be found that Dt has a great
influence on eq. When Dt distribution is uniform, eq also
distributes evenly, then the deformation in radial direc-tion is
uniform. The above analysis proves that N has a great effect on
eq, so the more uniform distribution of N is, the greater
formability and moderate thickness changing rates can be
obtained in radial direction. In this paper, the stress dis-tribution
is obtained under different filling conditions to choose the most
suitable filling materials.
724 X. GUO et al.

3. Numerical simulation

3.1. FE model for tube simulation

To investigate the three-dimensional free bending process of


tubes filled with different materials, ABAQUS/explicit was used
to numerically simulate the forming process. The FE model of
this process is shown in Fig. 2 which includes a tube, a bend die,
a spherical bearing, a guider, a pressing, and differ-ent filling
materials. Each die model created during the geom-etry modelling
was oriented in its own coordinate system and was independent of
the other geometry models, and then the dies and tube were
assembled in the global coordinate system. These data were put in
CATIA software and then imported to ABAQUS/explicit FE code Fig. 3 True stress–strain curve of copper tube.
(Fig. 2).
The tube was made of copper and filling materials were steel
balls, PU rubber and low melting point alloys, respec-tively. PU as rigid balls, so the mechanical properties of steel balls were
neglected.
rubber and low melting point alloys were defined as deformable
bodies and meshed by C3D10M solid element. The copper tubes According to ASTM E9-89a (2000) Standard Test Methods of
were meshed using C3D8R solid elements which were eight-node Compression, the samples of low melting point alloys for
linear brick with reduced integration elements while other parts compression test were cast into cylinders with dimensions of £18
and steel balls were defined as rigid bodies with R3D4 elements mm 18 mm. The compression tests of low melting point alloys
type. The interaction was set to general contact, and the analysis were conducted using a universal testing machine and a force-
step was adjusted to dynamic explicit. Since the lubrication unit displacement curve was obtained. Moreover, Elas-tic modulus
was designed near the bend die, the coefficient of friction and Poisson’s ratio of the low melting point alloys were obtained
between the dies and the tube were assumed very low. Thus, from tensile test, and the samples of the tensile test were
based on a great deal of simula-tion results, the coefficient of manufactured according to the international stan-dard ASTM
friction between the dies and the copper tubes were identified as E111-04. The true stress–strain curve was obtained using an
0.02. Meanwhile, the pressing and guider were set to encase. The extensometer to measure the stress and strains, as shown in Fig. 4.
tube was set a specified movement speed in the Z direction and
the bearing was set two movements respectively in the X and Y PU rubber behaves in a nonlinear elastic manner; thus in the
direction while the remaining degrees of freedom were all fixed. FE simulation, the Blatz-Ko model was selected as the most
appropriate material model for PU rubber. The mechan-ical
properties of PU rubber were obtained by uniaxial tests, biaxial
3.2. Material properties of copper tube different filling materials tests and planar tests, as shown in Table 2.

3.3. Influences of different filling materials during 3D free


As noted, the tube material used was copper TP1 tube. In this bending process
study, the uniaxial tensile tests with the extensometer were car-
ried out to obtain the true stress–strain curve of copper tube, as 3.3.1. Simulation conditions
shown in Fig. 3.
The bend die was set to YG8 cemented carbide and the In order to simulate the free bending process filled with differ-ent
specific parameters of the both the components are listed in Table materials, simulations for four copper tubes were carried out
1. As shown in Table 1, the yield strength of copper tube and based on the conditions summarized in Table 3.
The bending angle (u) was set to be 120L, and the bending
bend die were 294 and 2451 MPa, and the Poisson’s ratio was
0.32 and 0.3, respectively. The mechanical properties were radius was 78 mm. The outer diameter of the tube was 15 mm and
applied to the numerical simulations and the experiment. its thickness was 1 mm. The length of the tube was 500 mm and
the distance A between center of the bend die and front end of the
The relevant parameters of filling materials, such as steel
balls, PU rubber and low melting point alloy are listed in Table 2. guide was 30 mm. The eccentricity U between central axis of the
As described in Section 3.1, the steel balls were defined guide and center axis of the bend die in Y direction was set to 4.5
mm. The filled materials included steel balls, PU rubbers, and low
melting point alloys. The relative position sizes were shown in
Fig. 5.

3.3.2. Bending without filling materials


In order to investigate the influences of different filling materi-als
in 3D free bending, bending was first simulated without fill-ing
materials. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 6. It can be
seen that stress distribution was not uniform, and maximum stress
was only 268.1 MPa, which attributed to the lack of the
supporting force inside the tube. Hence, it was necessary to fill
Fig. 2 FE modeling of tube free bending. the tubes with materials.
Finite element modelling and experimental investigation of filling different materials in copper tubes 725

Table 1 Relevant parameters of different materials.


3
Materials Density (kg/m ) Elastic modulus (MPa) Poisson’s ratio Yield strength (MPa)
TP1 8900 110000 0.32 294
YG8 14500 71000 0.3 2451

Table 2 Relevant parameters of filling materials.


3
Materials Density (kg/m ) Elastic modulus (MPa) Poisson’s ratio Tensile strength (MPa) Elongation (%)
PU rubber 1010 60 0.463 7 600
Low melting point alloy 9790 18140 0.3 41.2 200

Fig. 4 True stress–strain curve of low melting point alloys.

Fig. 5 Model assembly position.


Table 3 Main parameters used for simulation of different
conditions.
The simulation results under condition (4) are shown in Fig. 9.
Conditions Tube feeding Filled The diameter of Due to the lowest elastic modulus, PU rubber was unable to
speed (mm/s) materials filled materials (mm) provide internal pressure. Hence, the stress was only 258.9 MPa,
(mm)
and both maximum and minimum thicknesses were 1.159 mm and
(1) 10 Nothing 0.9479 mm, respectively. Compared with condition (1) (Fig. 6),
(2) 10 Steel balls 12 during the forming process, the tube bears less stress and the
(3) 10 Low melting 13 (after stress distribution is more uniform when the filling materials were
point alloy solidification) replaced with PU rubber.
(4) 10 PU rubber 12
4. Results and discussion

3.3.3. Bending with different filling materials 4.1. Free bending experiments
The simulation results under condition (2) are gathered in Fig. 7.
The stress distribution of the copper tubes after bending with 3D free bending experiments were carried out on the indepen-
filled SS304 steel balls increased. Also, the stress distribu-tion dently developed three-axis free-bending system under opti-mized
appeared more inhomogeneous, because SS304 steel balls were process parameters obtained from simulations. To prevent the
movable during bending and the contact between SS304 steel leakage of steel balls and PU rubber, the ends of copper tube were
balls and tube wall was the point contact, a kind of dis-continuous sealed by low melting point alloys. The machine is basically
contact way. composed of three servo motors. In form-ing process, two servo
The simulation data of bending using fillers with low melt-ing motors drive the bend die shifting in the X and Y directions, and
point alloys are depicted in Fig. 8. The low melting point alloy the rotation around the center is done by the spherical connection
established a complete contact with tube wall after solid-ification, of the bend die to the guider. The other servo motor which works
and the stress distribution was uniform during bend-ing process. in the Z direction to feed the tube into the bend die is thereby
Fig. 8 revealed ideal forming results. synchronized with the X
726 X. GUO et al.

Fig. 6 Result of bending simulation under condition (1).

Fig. 7 Result of bending simulation under condition (2).

Fig. 8 Result of bending simulation under condition (3).

and Y axes of the bend die. Lubricating oil was continuously is in accordance with each other. The maximum relative error
filled to the forming part to reduce the friction resistance dur-ing between the experimental and simulation results is less than
the forming process. The experimental process and results under 18.4%, indicating the reliability of FE model used in this study.
different conditions are shown in Fig. 10. The imprecise measurement of friction coefficient plays a vital
role in free bending process which cause the error between
4.2. Effect of filling materials on wall thickness variation experimental and simulation results. As shown in Fig. 11, the
trends of inner thickness distribution of copper tubes were similar
while filled with different materials. Using low melting point
The reliability between experimental the results and simulation
results for free bending is shown in Fig. 11, it can be seen that the alloys under condition (3) as typical solid filling materials, the
wall thickness obtained by FE modelling and experimental inner thickness change was minimal and
Finite element modelling and experimental investigation of filling different materials in copper tubes 727

Fig. 9 Results of bending simulation under condition (4).

Fig. 10 Experiments of three dimensional free bending under different conditions.

Fig. 11 Inner thickness distribution under different conditions.

maximum changing rate was only 13.5% at bending angle of 90L.


Correspondingly, using PU rubbers as filling materials in
condition (4) as representative flexible filling, the inner thickness Fig. 12 Outer thickness distribution under different conditions.
changing rate reached up to 15%. Compared with condition (1),
when steel balls were used as filling materials, the inner thickness results are consistent with simulation results, which proves the
changing rate has increased, and the inner surface quality was reliability of the theoretical model again. It can be observed that
worse, while the indentations in the inner arc are deeper than the outer thickness distributions were similar, and the changing
those in the outer arc. rate was minimal for copper tube filled with low melting point
Fig. 12 shows the outer thickness distribution of the copper alloys. Under condition (4), when copper tubes were filled with
tubes under different conditions, the trends of the experimental PU rubbers, the outer thickness reduced to
728 X. GUO et al.

Fig. 13 Cross section deformation under different conditions.

Table 4 Maximum and minimum diameter and ellipticity under different conditions.
Condition Maximum diameter (mm) Minimum diameter (mm) Initial diameter (mm) Ellipticity (%)
Experimental Simulation Experimental Simulation Experimental Simulation
1 15.43 16.45 14.67 14.25 15 5.067 13.667
2 15.21 15.83 14.81 14.64 15 2.667 7.933
3 15.15 15.68 14.93 14.85 15 1.467 5.533
4 15.28 16.19 14.75 14.48 15 3.533 11.4

0.954 mm as well as the outer thickness maximum changing rate 4.4. Variation of mean stress distribution
was reached to 4.6% at bending angle of 90L. However,
compared to condition (1), instead of decrease in outer thick-ness Fig. 14 shows the numerical simulation results of mean stress
changing rate, tubes filled with steel balls showed increased outer
distribution of copper tubes under different conditions, respec-
thickness changing rates.
tively. As depicted in this figure, the mean stress located in the
When the servo motor drives the bend die shifting in the initial and the terminal of the tube is almost larger than other
positive direction of Y axis, N enlarges the total radial stress. positions, the first peak appeared at 20L cross-section and the
Thus, the materials on the outside of the tube flow along the second peak occurred at 90L cross-section. Meanwhile, the mean
tangent direction. This is why the wall thickness is thinning on the stress distributed in the middle part of bending tube is relatively
outside of tube. Similarity, when the servo motor drives the bend homogeneous. It indicates a transition into the stable deformation
die shifting in the negative direction of Y axis, N has the same stage. As shown in Figs. 11 and 12, it is notewor-thy that the peak
effects on wall thickness thickening. Therefore, differ-ent N has values of wall thickness thinning and thick-ening both appear at
different effect on wall thickness variation. the same position of the tube. From Fig. 14, it can be found that
the mean stress distribution is more uniform when copper tube
4.3. Effect of filling materials on cross-section distortion filled with low melting point alloys, at the same time, the inner
and outer thickness distribu-tion is much more uniform than other
As shown in Fig. 13, the filling materials greatly influenced the filling materials. Com-bined with the mean stress and thickness
ovalization of the cross-section. The following equation was used distribution, it can approve that the greater formability and
to investigate the specific functions of different filling materials. moderate thickness changing rates can be obtained when mean
stress distribution is more uniform, which is consistent with
d d theoretical analysis.
max min 100% 14
g¼ d0 ð Þ
where g is the ellipticity of the tube cross-section, d max and dmin
are respectively the maximum and the minimum diameter, and d 0
is the initial diameter.
Table 4 presents the maximum and minimum diameter of the
tubes and the ellipticity under the different conditions. It can be
observed that the simulation results are larger than the experiment
results with same variation trend, the maxi-mum diameter (16.45,
15.43 mm respectively) and the mini-mum diameter (14.25, 14.67
mm respectively) are occurred synchronously in simulation and
the experiment when filled with nothing, meanwhile, the
ellipticity is decreased regardless of the filling materials. In
particular, the lowest ellipticity reached to 1.467% for filling
materials with low melting point alloys (condition (3)).
Fig. 14 Mean stress distribution under different conditions.
Finite element modelling and experimental investigation of filling different materials in copper tubes 729

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