EXPERIMENTAL AND FINITE ELEMENT EVALUATION OF BENDING FOR MILD

STEEL

AHMAD AIMAN BIN RAMLAN

Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

JUNE 2012

vi

ABSTRACT

Finite element evaluation is one of the methods in predicting the springback angle in
sheet metal bending. Predicting the springback is important since to produce the
accuracy part geometry, the design of the die and bending tool must be accurate. This
thesis aims to evaluate the reliability of finite element method by comparing the results
with experimental results. The effect of parameters such as anisotropy in springback
also has been studied. Abaqus software has been used to simulate the bending process
and the mechanical properties provided from tensile test will be used to run the
simulation. In the U-bending experiment, the die were clamped on stamping machine
and the Mild Steel sheets then have been bent before the springback being measured
with SolidWorks software. The results from the experiment and simulation is slightly
different for the springback angle 1 , which the simulation shows increasing the
orientation will increase the springback, and for the experimental, the springback higher
at 0 degree orientation angle, and lower at 45 degree. For the springback angle 2 , the
simulation and experimental result show that increasing the orientation angle will
increase the amount of springback. Finite element method can be used to predict the
springback since the pattern of the graphs are nearly the same and percentages of error
are below 10 %. It can be comprehended that the finite element method are suitable
method to predict the springback angle of sheet metal bending. The further study on
parameters that effected bending process will make the finite element method is
important in the future.

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ABSTRAK

Kaedah analisis simulasi merupakan salah satu kaedah untuk meramal pembentukan
bangkit kembali dalam pembengkokan kepingan logam. Ramalan bangkit kembali amat
penting kerana untuk menghasilkan produk yang tepat, reka bentuk alat acuan dan
peralatan pembengkokan mestilah tepat. Laporan ini bertujuan untuk menilai kebolehan
kaedah simulasi dengan membandingkan keputusan simulasi dengan keputusan
eksperimen. Kesan parameter seperti anisotropi dalam bangkit kembali juga dikaji.
Perisian Abaqus telah digunakan untuk mensimulasikan proses lenturan dan sifat-sifat
mekanik yang disediakan dalam ujian regangan akan digunakan untuk menjalankan
simulasi. Dalam eksperimen lenturan-U, alat acuan telah dikapit pada mesin tekanan
dan kepingan Mild Steel kemudian dibengkokan sebelum nilai bangkit kembali
diukur dengan perisian Solidworks. Hasil daripada eksperimen dan simulasi adalah
sedikit berbeza untuk sudut bangkit kembali, 1 yang mana simulasi menunjukkan
peningkatan sudut orientasi akan meningkatkan bangkit kembali dan untuk eksperimen,
bangkit kembali lebih tinggi pada sudut orientatasi 0 darjah dan lebih rendah pada 45
darjah. Bagi sudut bangkit kembali 2 , simulasi dan hasil eksperimen menunjukkan
bahawa peningkatan sudut orientasi akan meningkatkan jumlah bangkit kembali.
Kaedah simulasi boleh digunakan untuk meramal bangkit kembali kerana corak graf
adalah hampir sama dan peratusan ralat di bawah 10 % . Dapat difahami bahawa kaedah
simulasi sesuai untuk meramal sudut bangkit kembali bagi pembengkokan kepingan
logam. Kajian lanjut mengenai parameter yang mempengaruhi proses pembengkokan
adalah penting pada masa akan datang.

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
SUPERVISORS DECLARATION

ii

STUDENTS DECLARATION

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

vi

ABSTRAK

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

viii

LIST OF TABLES

xi

LIST OF FIGURES

xii

LIST OF SYMBOLS

xiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

xv

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

INTRODUCTION

1.2

PROJECT BACKGROUND

1.3

PROBLEM STATEMENT

1.4

OBJECTIVES

1.5

SCOPE OF WORKS

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

INTRODUCTION

2.2

SHEET METAL FORMING

2.2.1 Material Properties that affect Sheet Metal Formability

2.3

THEORY OF SHEET METAL BENDING

2.4

TYPES OF BENDING

2.4.1

Air Bending

2.4.2

Bottoming

2.4.3

Coining

2.4.4

V-bending

10

2.4.5

U- bending

10

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2.5

PARAMETERS INVOLVED IN U- BENDING

12

2.6

SPRING BACK IN U BENDING

13

2.7

MATERIAL

16

2.7.1

Material Selection

16

2.7.2

Material Properties

17

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1

INTRODUCTION

19

3.2

PROJECT FLOW CHART

20

3.3

TENSILE TEST METHOD

22

3.3.1

Tensile test specimen ASTM E8

22

3.3.2

Specimen preparation

23

3.3.3

Raw material preparation

24

3.3.4

CNC Software / Mastercam

25

3.3.5

Specimen preparation using CNC Milling Machine

28

3.3.6

Tensile Test Experiment

31

FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION

34

3.4

3.5

3.4.1

Blank

34

3.4.2

Die

35

3.4.3

Blank Holder

35

3.4.4

Punch

36

3.4.5

Material and properties define

37

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

42

3.5.1

Specimen preparation

42

3.5.2

Die

42

3.5.3

Springback measurement

44

CHAPTER 4

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1

INTRODUCTION

46

4.2

TENSILE TEST RESULT

46

4.3

FE SIMULATION RESULTS FOR U-BENDING TEST

51

4.3.1

Simulation of the sheet metal bending

52

4.3.2

Springback measurement from Solidworks

54

4.3.3

Effect of anisotropy on springback

56

4.4

4.5

CHAPTER 5

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

57

4.4.1

Springback measurement using SolidWorks 2011

59

4.4.2

Effect of orientation angle on springback

63

COMPARISON OF FE SIMULATION AND

EXPERIMENTAL

64

CONCLUSION

5.1

INTRODUCTION

66

5.2

CONCLUSION

66

5.3

RECOMMENDATIONS

67

REFERENCES

68

APPENDICES
APPENDIX A

Final Year Project 1 gantt chart

71

APPENDIX B

Final Year Project 2 gantt chart

72

APPENDIX C

Tensile test specimen drawing in SolidWorks

73

APPENDIX D

CNC milling process G-CODE

74

APPENDIX E

Die drawing

75

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LIST OF TABLES

Table
No.

Title

Page

2.1

List of correction springback on different material

15

3.1

23

3.2

Dimension and Specification of The Tensile Test Specimen

ASTM E8
Total specimens preparation

3.3

Selected points in stress-strain diagram for 0 degree

38

3.4

Selected points in stress-strain diagram for 45 degree

39

3.5

Selected points in stress-strain diagram for 90 degree

40

3.6

The total number of specimens used in V bending experimental

42

3.7

Material properties

42

4.1

Mechanical Properties from Tensile Test Result

47

4.2

Tensile Test Result for Mild Steel AISI 1010 1.5mm Thickness

48

4.3

Final Width and Length of Specimen

49

4.4

Mechanical Properties of Mild Steel AISI 1010

50

4.5

Simulation result of springback for Mild Steel

55

4.6

Experimentally measured parameters of springback

62

4.7

Springback values for Experimental and Simulation

64

24

xii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No

Title

Page

2.1

Basic cutting process of blanking an piercing

2.2

Directionality in properties of a Rolled Sheet

2.3

Pictures of V-die bending

2.4

Air bending process

2.5

Bottoming process

2.6

Coining process

2.7

Illustration of V-die bending

10

2.8

Sheet metal U-bending

11

2.9

Parameters of U- bending

12

2.10

(a) U-bending process . (b) Definition of springback in U-bending

14

2.11

Correction springback based on r / e

15

2.12

Stress-Strain Curve

17

2.13

Strain rate sensitivity parameter evaluated from constant strain

rate tests at various temperatures

18

3.1

Rectangular (flat) tensile test specimen

22

3.2

LVD Shearing cutting machine

24

3.3

Plates of Mild Steel AISI 1010 (300mm x 50 mm)

25

3.4

The process flow of tensile test specimen in Mastercam

27

3.5

Haas CNC Milling Machine

28

3.6

Clamping the workpiece

29

3.7

CNC Milling Machine in process

30

3.8

The finish product of the specimen

30

3.9

31

3.10

Specimen attached in the tensile Machine during tensile test

experiment
Specimen attached starting to necking

3.11

Specimen result in tensile test

32

3.12

Stress-Strain diagram of Mild Steel AISI 1010

33

3.13

Blank

34

3.14

Die

34

3.15

Blank holder

35

32

xiii

3.16

Punch

36

3.17

Engineering stress strain diagram for Mild Steel AS 1010,

anisotropy, R = 0 degree

38

3.18

Engineering stress strain diagram for Mild Steel AS 1010,

anisotropy = 45 degree

39

3.19

Engineering stress strain diagram for Mild Steel AS 1010,

anisotropy, R = 90 degree

40

3.20

Schematic and photograph for the experimental set-up: 1,upper

part , 2, die; 3, blank holder; 4, punch; 5, spring ; 6, lower part

43

3.21

Parameters for springback in U-bending process

44

3.22

Specimen scanning picture

45

4.1

Different Orientation Angle of Stress-Strain Graph for Mild Steel

48

1.5mm Thickness
4.2

Geometrical description of the simulation model

51

4.3

Punch start touching the workpiece

52

4.4

During Bending

52

4.5

Maximum movement of the punch

53

4.6

After bending (Punch release)

53

4.7

(a) 0 degree , (b) 45 degree , (c) 90 degree simulation of rolling

direction for Mild Steel 1.5mm thickness

54

4.8

Anisotropy effect on amount of springback angle 1

55

4.9

Anisotropy effect on amount of springback angle 2

56

4.10

Schematic description of measurement position for springback

57

4.11

58

4.15

(a) 2D drawing of Mild Steel after bending, (b) Mild Steel

specimen after bend
(a) first specimen, (b) second specimen, (c) third specimen , with
rolling direction = 0degree
(a) first specimen, (b) second specimen, (c) third specimen , with
rolling direction = 45degree
(a) first specimen, (b) second specimen, (c) third specimen , with
rolling direction = 90 degree
Effect of orientation angle on springback, 1

4.16

Effect of orientation angle on springback, 2

63

4.17

Comparison between simulation and experimental for 1

64

4.18

Comparison between simulation and experimental for 2

65

4.12
4.13
4.14

59
60
61
62

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LIST OF SYMBOLS
2

Variance

Fmax

Bending Force

Mean
Spring back ratio

Strain hardening exponent

Normal anisotropic value

Poissons ratio

Youngs modulus

Sheet thickness

Neutral axis
Spring back angle

Inertia moment of cross-section per unit width

M()

Bending moment along the bending surface

Neutral layer radius of the sheet

Ultimate tensile strength

Die gap

Sheet thickness
Spring back curvature

Bending moment

Inertia moment of cross-section

xv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AISI

American Iron and Steel Institute

ASTM

American Society for Testing and Material

TRIP

Transformation Induced Plasticity

CNC

Computer Numerical Control

UTS

Ultimate Tensile Strength

DKL

Daw-Kwei Leu

DFPH

Dongye Fei and Peter Hodgson

FEA

Finite Element Analysis

CRES

Called-Corrosion-Resistant

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides a brief overview of the entire project consists of project
background, problem statement, objectives, scopes of the works and organization of the
thesis.

1.2

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Bending of sheet metal is one of the widely used processes in manufacturing

industries especially in the automobile and aircraft industries. This bending operation is
commonly used because the process is simple and final sheet product of desired shape
and appearance can be quickly and easily produced with relatively simple tool set. In
bending operation, plastic deformation is followed by some elastic recovery when the
load is removed due to the finite modulus of elasticity in materials. During the loading
and unloading process, elastic strain is released and the residual stresses redistribute
through the sheet thickness producing spring-back. Basically, this project deals with
experimental and finite element evaluation of bending for mild steel. In this project,
bending analysis will take springback as one of the part of bending analysis.

Through this project, bending analysis can be made in term of knowing about
spring-back of mild steel material. Many factors affect springback such as types of
material, types of bending, and thickness of material and sheet anisotropy.

1.3

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Metal bending is the most common operation to change the shape of material by
plastically deforming. Although this process is simple but it has a major problem which
is spring-back. Springback can be described as the additional deformation of sheet metal
parts after the loading is removed, which can lead to production of unacceptable
products with wrinkle, tear, poor dimension precision, and so on.
In the past, sheet metal bending processes are dependent on the designers
experience and involve trials and errors to obtain the desired result, so the study of
springback or amount of spring-back that influenced by various factors are really
important.

1.4

OBJECTIVES
1. To determine springback angle in sheet metal bending for Mild Steel.
2. To determine the influence of anisotropy,R on springback.
3. To determine reliability of Finite Element Method (FEA) in sheet metal by
comparing with the experimental results.

1.5

SCOPE OF WORKS
1. To study the basic understanding of spring-back behaviour from the past
researchers (Literature Review).
2. To conduct experiments of tensile test to determine mechanical properties of
Mild steel.
3. To perform Finite Element Evaluation analysis of bending for Mild steel.
4. To conduct experiment of sheet metal bending.
5. To analyse and compare the simulation and experimental result.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter will discuss about theory of bending, types of bending, materials
and parameters involved that causing the bending. This chapter will have all necessary
information from journal, book and articles that are related to this project and also about
the spring back study. The sources for the literature review are library books, journal
from established databases such as Science Direct and Scopus, article and also
newspaper article.

2.2

SHEET METAL FORMING

Sheet metal forming processes are those in which force is applied to a piece of
sheet metal to modify its geometry rather than remove any material. The applied force
stresses the metal beyond its yield strength, causing the material to plastically deform,
but not to fail. By doing so, the sheet can be bent or stretched into a variety of complex
shapes. There are a few examples of common sheet metal forming such as blanking and
piercing, bending, stretching, stamping or draw die forming, Coining and ironing and
many more (Marciniak, 2002.)

(a)

(b)

(b)

(d)

Figure 2.1 : (a) Basic cutting process of blanking an piercing. (b) Example of sheet
metal bending process. (c) Typical part formed in a stamping or draw die.
(d) Thinning a sheet locally using a coining tool.
Source : (Marciniak, Duncan,Hu, 2002)

In sheet metal forming industry, especially in sheet bending process, spring-back

has a very significant role. In this process, the dimension precision is a major concern,
due to the considerable elastic recovery during unloading which leads to spring-back.
Also, under certain conditions, it is possible for the final bend angle to be smaller than
the original angle. Such bend angle is referred to as spring-go or spring-forward. The
amount of spring-back/ spring-go is influenced by various process parameters, such as
tool shape and dimension, contact friction condition, material properties, sheet
anisotropy, and sheet thickness.

2.2.1 Material Properties that affect Sheet Metal Formability

a) Ductility: Metal used in the sheet metal work must be ductile. If we use a brittle
metal it can easily undergo failure during forming. Thats why metals ductility
is very important in sheet metal working.

b) Yield strength: Yield strength of a material used in sheet metal forming must be
low. High strength metals have reduced stretch distribution characteristic,
making them less stretchable and drawable than lower strength metals. Stretch
distribution characteristic determines the steels ability to distribute stretch over
a large surface area.

c) Elastic modulus: Stretch distribution affects not only stretch ability, but also
elastic recovery , or spring back, and the metals total elongation.

d) Discontinuously Yielding:

Low carbon show a discontinuous yielding

accompanied with the formation of Lder bands, which reduces the surface
quality of the end product. In order to remove the discontinuous yield point a
temper rolling (rolling where a few percent of reduction is applied) can be
applied.

e) Work Hardening Rate (n): Work hardening rate is a very important sheet
metal forming parameters. When increases materials resistance to necking also
increase. The work hardening is the mechanism, which prevents local yielding
and increase the uniform elongation.

f) Anisotropy (Directionality): Anisotropy is another factor that affect

formability. Once consequence of directionality is a change in mechanical
properties with direction. When forming sheet metal, practical consequences of
directionality include such phenomena as excess wrinkling, puckering, earformation, local thinning, or actual rupture.

Axes of minimum and

maximum ductility

Figure 2.2: Directionality in properties of a Rolled Sheet.

Source: (Chan et al., 2004)

2.3

THEORY OF SHEET METAL BENDING

Bending can be defined as shaping materials without removing any chips around
a definite axis through or without heat. Bending is the process of placing a sheet of
metal over the matrix on the press bed where the sheet is bent around the tip of the
punch as it enters the die. Bending dies are the setup, proper to the required piece shape,
consisting of a female die and punch, and making permanent changes on steel sheet
material (Tekaslan.O.V, 2007).

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.3 : Pictures of V-die bending: a) under load and (b) after unloading.
Source: (Kardes Sever et al., 2011)

Bending along a straight line is the most common of all sheet forming processes
as shown in Figure 2.3, it can be done in various ways such as forming along the
complete bend in a die, or by wiping, folding or flanging in special machines, or sliding
the sheet over a radius in a die. A very large amount of sheet is roll formed where it is
bent progressively under shaped rolls. Failure by splitting during a bending process is
usually limited to high-strength, less ductile sheet and a more common cause of
unsatisfactory bending is lack of dimensional control in terms of springback and
thinning. A few among the most common applications of sheet metal parts are as
automobile and aircraft panels, housings, cabinets etc. Customization of sheet metal
parts to produce parts of varying configurations and sizes is a very common occurrence
in a sheet metal fabrication scenario (Diegel, 2002).

2.4

TYPES OF BENDING

There are several types of bending that commonly used in the industries such as
Air bending, Bottoming, Coining, V- bending, and U-bending. A bending tool must be
decided depending on the shape and severity of bend (Boljanovic, 2004).

2.4.1 Air Bending

Air bending is a bending process in which the punch touches the work piece and
the work piece does not bottom in the lower cavity. As the definition of springback,
when the punch is released, the work piece springs back a little and ends up with less
bend than that on the punch (greater included angle).There is no need to change any
equipment or dies to get different bending angles since the bend angles are determined
by the punch stroke.

Figure 2.4 : Air bending process

Source : ( Diegel, 2002)

2.4.2 Bottoming

Bottoming is a bending process where the punch and the work piece bottom on
the die. In bottom bending, spring back is reduced by setting the final position of the
punch such as that the clearance between the punch and die surface is less than the
blank thickness, the material yields slightly and reduces the spring back.

Figure 2.5 : Bottoming process.

Source : (Diegel, 2002)

2.4.3 Coining

Bending process in which the punch and the work piece bottom on the die
and compressive stress is applied to the bending region to increase the amount of plastic
deformation also can be called as coining

Figure 2.6: Coining process.

Source : (Diegel, 2002)

10

2.4.4

V-bending

Figure 2.7 : Illustration of V-die bending.

Source : ( Esat et al.,2002)

The V-die bending process is the bending of a V-shaped part in a single die. The
work piece is bent between a V-shaped punch and die. The force acting on the punch
causes punch displacement and then the workpiece is bent. The work piece is initially
bent as an elastic deformation. With continued downward motion by the punch, plastic
deformation sets in when the stresses exceed the elastic limit. This plastic deformation
starts on the outer and inner surfaces directly underneath the punch.

2.4.5 U- bending

U bending is performed when two parallel bending axes are produced in the
same operation. A backing pad is used to forces the sheet contacting with the punch
bottom (Marciniak , 2002). Generally U bending process can be divided into two
steps, loading and unloading. In the loading step, the punch will completely moves
down and the metal is being bent into the die. During this step, the work piece
undergoes elastoplastic deformation and temperature increase under frictional
resistance. For the second step which is unloading step, the deformed sheet metal is

11

ejected from the tool set and metal was experiencing the residual stress release and the
temperature drop to reach a thermo-mechanical equilibrium state (Cho,2003) .

Die profile

Sheet metal

(a)

(b)

Figure 2.8 : Sheet metal U-bending: (a) Schematic diagram of U bending process
(b) Deformed specimen after unloading.
Source : (Bakhshi-Jooybari et al.,2009)

U-bending process is often used to manufacture sheet parts like channels, beams
and frames. In this process, the sheet metal usually undergoes complex deformation
history such as stretchbending, stretchunbending and reverse bending. When the tools
are removed, in addition to springback, sidewall curl often happens, which makes the
prediction of springback become more difficult.

Different methods, such as analytical method, semi-analytical method and finite

element method (FEM), have been applied to predict the sheet springback of Ubending. Xu (2005) and Samuel (2000), applied FEM to simulate the forming and
springback process of sheet U-bending and reviewed the effects of numerical
parameters, tools geometry and process parameters on the predicted accuracy of
springback. However, FEM is a time-consuming method and also is very sensitive to
numerical parameters such as element type and size, algorithms, contact definition and
convergence criterion for solution etc . (Zhang, 2007)

12

2.5

PARAMETERS INVOLVED IN U- BENDING

Bend Allowance

Figure 2.9 : Parameters of U- bending.

Source : (Boljanovic, 2004)

1. Bend Allowance The length of the arc through the bend area at the neutral
axis.
2.

Bend Angle The included angle of the arc formed by the bending operation.

3. Bend Compensation The amount by which the material is stretched or

compressed by the bending operation. All stretch or compression is assumed to
occur in the bend area.
4. Bend Lines The straight lines on the inside and outside surfaces of the
material

where the flange boundary meets the bend area.

5. Inside Bend Radius The radius of the arc on the inside surface of the bend
area.
6. K-factor Defines the location of the neutral axis. It is measured as the
distance from the inside of the material to the neutral axis divided by the
material thickness.

13

7. Mold Lines For bends of less than 180 degrees, the mold lines are the straight
lines where the

surfaces of the flange bounding the bend area intersect. This

occurs on both the inside and outside surfaces of the bend.

8. Neutral Axis Looking at the cross section of the bend, the neutral axis is the
theoretical location at which the material is neither compressed nor stretched.
9. Set Back - For bends of less than 180 degrees, the set back is the distance from
the bend lines to

2.6

the mold line. (Boljanovic, 2004).

SPRING BACK IN U BENDING

Spring back generally defined as additional deformation of sheet metal parts

after the loading is removed (Zhang, 2007). Spring back is a major problem in sheet
metal bending technique. Several bending operations done on sheet metal are air
bending, V-die bending, rubber die bending and U-bending. In U-bending, the material
may exhibit negative and positive spring-back caused by deformation as the punch
completes the bending operation(fem of v-bending). The amount of spring-back/ springgo is influenced by various process parameters, such as tool shape and dimension,
contact friction condition, material properties, sheet anisotropy, and sheet thickness
(Bakshi,2006).

There are several researchers that have investigated and attempted to obtain a
basic understanding of spring back behaviour. The effect of bending angle on spring
back of six types of materials with different thicknesses in V-die bending has been
studied by Tekiner et al (2001) experimentally showed the effect of combined hot die
and cold punch on reduction of spring-back of aluminium sheets. Li et al. (2005) also
showed that the accuracy of spring-back simulation is directly affected by the material
hardening model.