NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF FEED RATES AS A PROCESS PARAMETERS IN THE FLOW FORMING OF AA7075 SOLID TUBES

Flow forming, as a kind of metal spinning process, is mainly used to produce thin walled high-precision tubular components. In this study, the analysis of forward flow forming process was carried out. The influence of feed rates amount as a major flow-forming process parameters on the quality of an AA7075 alloy such as surface roughness and diametral growth and forming load were studied numerically and experimentally. A three dimensional FE model was developed to analyze the process. The FE code of ABAQUS was employed. A series of experimental tests were carried out to verify the FE results. The simulation work has been performed by the rigid-plastic FE method. Comparison between FE and experiment results showed good agreement. Both the simulation and experimental results highlight the major role of feed rate parameter on the finished products quality and flow forming loads. Microstructure evaluations showed the homogeneous distribution of grains in the flow formed tubes

Keywords:

Flow Forming , feed rate , FEM , experiment