For the successful forming of tailored blank, it is important to control the deformation of the stretch flange mode, which is strong1y dependent upon the location of weld line and blank shape. In order to investigate the effects of tailored blank design factors on the stretch flange forming, we made the model die which can simulate stretch flange mode. Taguchi method was employed to analyze the sensitivity of blank design factors for the forming of tailored blank. From the results of experiment S/N ratios were calculated and using Variance Analysis, significance of parameters and optimal condition of each factors were extracted. Based on these analyses, the weld line height and the strength ratio and the arc center height were selected as effective parameter. The analysed result was practically applied for Side outer panel stamping process.

The backward tracing scheme(BWT) of the finite element method has been extended lot the design of sheet blank in three-dimensional deformation. Originally the scheme was developed for preform design in bulk forming, and applied to several forming processes successfully. Its key concept is to trace backward from the final desirable configuration to an intermediate preform or initial blocker. A program for initial blank design in sheet forming which contains the capabilities of forward loading simulation by the finite element method and backward tracing simulation, has been developed and proved the effectiveness by applying to a square cup stamping process. In the blank design of square cup stamping, the backward tracing program can produce an optimum blank configuration which forms a sound net-shape cup product without machining after forming. For the confirmation of the analytic result derived from the backward tracing simulations as well as forward loading simulations, a series of experiment were carried out. The experiments include the first trial sheet forming process with a rectangular blank, an improved process with a modified blank preform and the final process with an optimum blank resulted from the backward tracing scheme. The experiments show that the backward tracing scheme has been implemented successfully in blank design of sheet metal forming.

In this study, when a square cup is under drawing, blank holder pressure necessary for flange wrinkling prevention was experimentally studied. The materials used in the experiment were SPCC steel and SUS304 and the drawing ratio was 1.62∼2.0. Two cases for lubricantion condition were investigated. One was without lubricant and the other was with lubricant of high viscosity.

In order to reduce weight of a high-speed railroad vehicle, the main body has been manufactured by hollow section extrusion using aluminum alloys. A porthole die has utilized for the hollow section extrusion process, which causes complicated die geometry and flow characteristics. Design of porthole die is very difficult due to such a complexity. The three-dimensional finite element analysis for hollow section is also an arduous job from the viewpoint of appropriate mesh construction and tremendous computation time. In the present work, mismatching refinement, an efficient domain decomposition method with different mesh density for each subdomain, is implemented for the analysis of the hollow section extrusion process. In addition, a modified grid-based approach with the surface element layer is utilized lot three-dimensional mesh generation of a complicated shape with hexahedral elements. The effects of porthole design are discussed through the simulation for extrusion of an underframe part of a railroad vehicle. An experiment has also been carried out for the comparison. Comparing the velocity distribution at the outlet with the thickness variation of the extruded part, it is concluded that the analysis results can provide reliable measures whether the die design is acceptable to obtain uniform part thickness. The analysis results are then successfully reflected on the industrial porthole die design.

A process model including the effects of both the texture development and ductile damage evolution In plane strain rolling is presented. In this process model, anisotropy from deformation texture and deterioration of mechanical properties due to growth of micro voids are directly coupled Into the virtual work expressions for the momentum and mass balances. Special treatments in obtaining the initial values of field variables in the nonlinear simultaneous equations for the anisotropic, dilatant viscoplastic deformation are also given. Mutual effects of the texture development and damage evolution during plate rolling are carefully examined in terms of the distribution of strain components, accumulated damage, R-value as well as yield surfaces.

This study aims to examine the influence of experimental and numerical factors on the results of the test and finite element simulation to evaluate the formability of sheet metals. The stretch-forming test with a hemispherical punch is carried out to obtain the limiting dome height (LDH) and forming limit diagram (FLD) for several kinds of aluminium and steel sheet. The results of the LDH and FLD tests are analysed to find any correlation with the uniaxial tensile properties. It proves that the size of the prescribed grid has great influence on the measured value of strain. The finite element analysis of the punch stretching process is also carried out and the result is compared with the experimental data. The influence of the numerical parameters such as friction coefficient, element size and anisotropy model on the simulation results tms out to be very considerable.

The studies on gram size refinement for rheocast processing of hypereutectic Al-18%Si alloys have been investigated in the present study. To increase the efficiency of mechanical stirring, sieve type stirrer are newly designed and implemented for rheocasting of hypereutectic Al-18%Si alloy. Mechanical stirring of semi-solid slurry by using sieve type mechanical stirrer results in morphological changes of the primary Si particles, from angular rod shape to near spherical shape and uniform distribution of proeutectic Si. The remarkable spheroidization of Primary Si Particles and distributional uniformity of proeutectic Si show well the efficiency of sieve type mechanical stirring method which can accelerate the coalescence-fracture-wear of the individual particles by strong turbulent flow between lattices during rotation of sieve type stirrer.

Formation of Shear Band under the adiabatic condition is widely observed In the engineering materials during rapidly forming process lot a thermally rate-dependent material. The shear band stems from evolution of a narrow region in which an intensive plastic flow occurs. The shear band often plays a role of a precursor of the ductile fracture during a forming process. The objective of this study is to investigate the localization behavior using numerical method. In this work, the implicit finite difference scheme is employed due to the ease of convergence and the numerical stability It is noted that physical and mechanical properties of materials determine how the shear band is formed and then localized. Material properties can be characterized with inertia number dissipation number and diffusion number. It is observed that the dimensionless numbers effect on localization. Using a parametric study, comparison was made between CRS-1018 steel with WHA (tungsten heavy alloy). The deformation behavior of material in this study include an isotropic hardening as well as thermal softening. Moreover, this study suggests that a kinematic hardening constitutive relation be required to predict a more accurate strain level at a shear band.

It is desirable to use the square grid analysis with the aid of the stereo vision and image processing techniques in order to automatically measure the surface-strain distribution over a stamped part. But this method has some inherent problems such as the difficulty in enhancement of bad images, the measurement error due to the digital image resolution and the limit of the area that can be measured at a time. Therefore, it is still hard to measure the strain distribution over the entire surface of a medium-or large-sized stamped part even by using an automated strain measurement system. In this study, several methods which enable to solve these problems considerably without losing accuracy and precision In measurement are suggested. The superposition of images that have different high-lightened or damaged part from each other gives much enhanced image. A new algorithm for constructing of the element connectivity from the line-thinned image helps recognize up to 1,000 elements. And the geometry assembling algorithm including the global error minimization makes it possible to measure a large specimen with reliability and efficiency.

In the die casting process, the flow of liquid metal has significant influence on the quality of casting products and die life. For the optimal process design of front housing part of aircon compressor, various analyses were performed in this study by using computer simulation code, MAGMAsoft. The simulation has been focused on the molten metal behaviors during the filling and solidification stages for the sound casting products. Two cases of casting design that have different types of gating system are considered in the analysis. The potential sites where the casting defects may occur is examined by computer simulation and an improved design process is proposed. Also the effect of partial squeeze on the quality of casting products is considered and the optimal time lag after filling process is determined. For the die-stability, the effect of operational parameters such as die temperature, heat cycle and spot cooling on the die life has also been analyzed.

The present study has focused on the development of shear textures during groove pressing in an aluminum alloy sheet. The shear components 23 and 13 developed during the groove pressing process. The process consisting of two steps of grooving and flattening each effectively gave rise to a high shear deformation In the sheet without reduction in thickness. The main texture component obtained from the process was the rotated Bs-orientation. The evolution of shear components during the groove pressing caused an increase in R-value of aluminum sheet comparing to a normally processed rolled sheet.