Deep Drawing of Square-Shaped Sheet Metal Parts, Part 1: Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

The process of square-cup drawing is modeled employing a simplified finite element analysis technique. In order to make the algorithm computationally efficient, the deformation (total strain) theory of plasticity is adopted. The solution scheme is comprised of specifying a mesh of two-dimensional finite elements with membrane properties over the deformed configuration of the final part geometry. The initial positions of these elements are then computed by minimization of the potential energy, and therefore the strain distributions are determined. In order to verify predictions made by the finite element analysis method, a drawing apparatus is built and various drawing experiments are carried out. A number of circular and square cups are drawn and strain distributions measured. It is observed that there is generally a good agreement between computed and measured results for both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric cases.