Abstract
As the springback of sheet metal during unloading may cause deviation from a desired shape, accurate prediction of springback is essential for the design of sheet stamping operations. When considering the case of a sheet metal being bent to radius $\rho$ that is such that the maximum stress induced exceed the elastic limit of the material, plastic strain in the outer surface will occur and the material will take a permanent set: but since, on removing the bending moment, the recovery of the material is not uniform across the thickness, springback will occur and the radius $\rho$ will not be maintained. Furthermore, when a tensile load being applied to each end of specimen, the tensile stress due to bending is increased and the compressive stress is decreased or cancelled and eventually the whole specimen may be in varying degree of tension. On the removal of the applied load the specimen loses its elastic strain by contracting around the contour of the block, the radius $\rho$ will be determined by the residual differential strain. Therefore in this study the springback is analytically estimated by the residual differential strains between upper and lower surfaces of greatest radius after elastic recovery, and a springback model based on the bending moment is also analytically derived for comparison purpose.
