Concurrent Design of Sheet Metal Forming Product and Process

Abstract

An inverse finite element (FE) algorithm is used to develop a sheet forming process modeling module and numeric models are extracted out of the process modeling results. Both the representation schemes for numeric models and the empirical knowledge along with their integration into the knowledge base are discussed. To facilitate the definition of knowledge and the assertion of facts and support the inference capability, a shell called “Concurrent Design Environment (CDE)” is developed. Certainty factors for quality assurance can be evaluated by using the concurrent design system which is aimed at achieving a compatible design of sheet product and forming process at the preliminary design stage. Case studies are included to demonstrate the feasibility of this proposed system.