Forming Limit Diagram of an Aluminum Tube from Hydroforming tests

액압성형 시험을 통한 알루미늄 튜브 재료의 성형한계도

A tube hydroformability testing system was designed and fabricated so as to observe the forming process and to apply forming condition along arbitrarily pre-programmed internal pressure-axial feed path. The forming limit diagram of A6063 extruded tube, of 40.6 mm outer diameter and 2.25 mm thickness, was successfully obtained through free bulging and T-forming tests except the region of high positive minor strain. It is found that the data points marked on the FLD are mostly located near the strain paths from the finite element analysis excluding the cases of large axial feed. There exist data points even in the area beyond the uniaxial tension mode, since the reduction in thickness decreases due to the axial feed. The forming limit from T-forming test was considerably lower than that from free bulge test. It seems because the deformation is localized at the pole.