Simuleon FEA Blog

Metal roll forming process analysis in Abaqus

Posted by Christine Obbink-Huizer on Aug 21, 2020 10:13:21 AM

As you may have noticed, we're working on kind of a series of blogs on the simulation of different production
techniques. This time, we will look at roll forming.

Roll forming
During the roll forming process, a long strip of sheet metal is continuously bent into the desired cross-section.
The strip passes through a number of sets of rollers, where each set performs a part of the total desired bend,
until the final profile is obtained.

Example: guard rail

In this example, we'll simulate the forming of a profile for a road guardrail.

Figure 1: Example of the type of product being simulated.

Geometry
The sheet metal is modelled as a shell. It is a flat strip that is 3.2 m long, 40 cm wide and 1.5 mm thick.

Eight sets of rollers are used to shape the material. They gradually change shape, to make the profile
increasingly more pronounced.The rollers have a grap between them, with a width of 2 mm.

Figure 2: Sets of rolls used to shape the material

Material
Elastic-plastic stainless steel material properties are used for the sheet metal. The rolls are considered rigid.
They have inertial properties corresponding to steel.
Model set-up
The motion of the rollers is prescribed in this analysis: they rotate around their axis with a specifed angular
velocity without translational movement. Contact is included with a friction coefficient of 0.1. No loads or
boundary conditions are applied to the sheet metal.

A small initial velocity is prescribed to the sheet metal, to bring it into position. Once the sheet metal is in
contact with the rotating rollers, it will be pushed forward by them and it's deformation is determined by the
contact with the rollers.

Figure 3: Model set-up

Abaqus/Explicit is used for this analysis. The step time was one second.
Results
The sheet metal passes through all the rollers and obtains its final shape.

Video 1: The roll forming process

Figure 4: Final shape of the steel, colored based on plastic strain

 Apart from the deformed shape, other outputs such as the force on the rollers, contact pressures and stress in
the sheet are available as well.

Discussion
The final shape can be compared to the designed shape, to determine whether it is within the tolerances
allowed. In this analysis, the sheet becomes slightly off-center, leading to a somewhat asymmetric result. There
is also a bit of wrinkling on the edges of the product. These effects are probably unwanted and may require
further research.

A model like this, can be used to determine the influence of various aspects of the set-up, by varying them.
Such aspects could include:

 the distance between the rollers. Currently this was 2 mm for a sheet thickness of 1.5 mm. If this is reduced,
then the material will have less space, and ultimately it will be compressed as well as bent.
 tension on the sheet metal. Currently no tension was applied to the sheet metal, so that the rolls would
determine the movement of the sheet. In practice, it will be connected to more sheet metal on both sides, that
may push and pull on it.
 size/shape of the rollers. These can be optimized to obtain the shape of interest with the smallest possible
amount of rollers.
 friction. Currently a friction coefficient of 0.1 was applied. Friction, especially in combination with tension on
the sheet metal, can influence the results
 (mis)alignment. Misalignments may lead to asymmetric results and other unwanted effects.
 speed. A too high speed may lead to unwanted dynamic effects, while a too low speed may not be cost-
effective

Conclusion
Abaqus can be used to simulate the roll forming process to determine the deformed shape, among other
outputs. An analysis like this can be used as a starting point for further investigation into the influence of
various aspects on the roll forming setup.

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Topics: Abaqus, metal forming, Tips, Tricks & Approaches, roll forming process

Achuth Sreenivas
8/23/2020, 2:02:00 PM

Is it explicit or implicit analysis?

Reply to Achuth Sreenivas

Dolf Broekaart
8/24/2020, 8:52:37 AM

It was mentioned in the text.. Abaqus/Explicit

Reply to Dolf Broekaart

ACHUTH SREENIVAS
8/26/2020, 2:09:30 AM

Thanks. Sorry, I missed that. It is interesting to see the waviness in the edge and I was wondering if this is just
the dynamic effect due to the analysis type or process related issue.

Reply to ACHUTH SREENIVAS

Rohith Kalyan Kavadapu

8/25/2020, 8:25:04 PM

Why is it that you haven't used plane of symmetry for this problem. Theoretically, one plane of symmetry is
possible, the plane passing through the center of both rollers. This would have reduced the computation time in
half.

Reply to Rohith Kalyan Kavadapu

Christine Obbink Huizer
8/27/2020, 8:43:26 AM

Hi Rohith,

You are right about the symmetry plane and I could have used it. The reason I didn't is because I may want to
investigate the influence of asymmetries later on and the analysis is so fast that the extra time it takes to create
a symmetric model may not be worth it.
Reply to Christine Obbink Huizer