In order to analyse stretching of perforated sheets for shadow masks by the finite element method for use with the associated flow rule, yield functions which can explain the yield stresses and the apparent plastic contraction ratios of the sheets have been obtained. Coefficients in the yield functions could be determined from the measured apparent plastic contraction ratios under uniaxial tension. Using this yield function and estimated coefficients, the stretching of hole-type and slot-type sheets has been analysed and compared with the experimental results. The calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental results.

A series of tensile tests have been performed to investigate the hardening behavior of rolled steel sheets. Tensile tests consist of three stages. At the 1st stage, full size tensile specimens were prestrained in the direction of rolling, then mid-sized tensile specimens were cut from the gauge sections of the full size specimens at angles to the rolling direction. At the 2nd stage, mid-sized specimens were prestrained by predetermined magnitudes of strains and miniature tensile specimens were prepared from each of the mid-sized specimens at every 10 degrees. At the final stage, from tests on miniature tensile specimens the hardening behavior of the prestrained sheets has been investigated. According to the experimental results, orthotropic symmetry is reserved during tensile elongation, and one of the orthotropy axes is continuously rotated to specimen axis. Existing theories seem to fail to explain the rotation of orthotropy axis. A new phenomenological model is proposed to explain the strain induced rotation of orthotropy axes.

A variational formulation and the associated finite elemet equations have been derived for general three-dimensional deformation of a planar anisotropic rigid-plastic sheet metal which obeys the strain-rate potential proposed by BARLAT et al [13]. By using the natural convected coordinate system, the effect of geometric change and the rotation of planar anisotropic axes are considered efficiently. In order to check the validity of present formulation, a cylindrical cup and a square cup deep drawing test was modeled. good agreement was found between the FE simulation and the experiment. The results have shown that the present formulation for planar anisotropic deformation can be efficiently applied to the analysis of sheet metal working processes for planar anisotropic nonferrous metals.

The analysis of superplastic sheet forming process is studied by the use of the finite element method using a convected coordinate system and a skew boundary condition. In the formulation, the large inelastic behavior of the superplastic material is described as incompressible, nonlinear, viscous flow. The formulation is then approximated to the finite dimensional space with the use of membrane elements, which results in algebraic linear equations. In addition to the finite element formulation, a pressure cycle control algorithm is combined in the analysis for optimization of the forming time, which deals with the maximization of the strain rate sensitivity, the protection of the thickness reduction, the consistency of the desired strain rate and improvement of formability.

An updated Lagrangian finite element analysis with automatic remeshing scheme is applied to the three-dimensional hot extrusion through landless square dies. In the remeshing procedure, it is very difficult that the meshes are generated automatically with consideration of physical characteristics. In the presented study, the mesh generation is accomplished by modular concept. The generated meshes by modular concept have advantages, especially for three-dimensional problems, such as economized computational time and consideration of physical characteristic. In the problem, orifice shapes of square die are divided into two for the extrusion of solid sections. The orifice adaptive modules are developed for each type and the numerical examples are carried out for each type.

The log-log presentation of stress versus Larson-Miller parameter is obtained by uniaxial tensile test instead of the long time creep test. The used material for example calculations is SUS304 stainless steel. The temperature of the uniaxial tensile test can be determined by the Larson-Miller parameter of the design stress and the 0.1hr's rupture time of the uniaxial tensile test. The rupture time at the design temperature and stress can be determined by the Larson-Miller parameter of the stress. The average creep rate is the total deformation of the tensile test divided by the rupture time at the design stress and temperature. The liner trend and the order of the data of the average creep rate by this method is almost same as that of experimental results.

As for axisymmetirc sheet metal forming, a kind of pick-up apparatus for body-wrinkling is deviced. Experiments with both hemispherical and flat headed punches, with various clearances between punch and die, with respect to three kinds of materials each of which has two thicknesses, are performed. Firstly the process of evolution of body-wrinkling is observed. Then the critical blank-holding force (or meridional tensile force) for suppression of body-wrinkling at a specified punch-stroke is measured for all cases mentioned above. An empirical formula for it is proposed. Deformation patterns and stress distributions are analysed by the use of FEM. A simplified critical condition for body-wrinkling is formulated and introduced into the FEM program. And its effectiveness is checked by comparison with the experimental results. Using this FEM system, the governing factors of body-wrinkling are cleared up.

A finite-element based forging simulator, POSFORM, for automatic computer simulation of two-dimensional and axisymmetric forging processes was introduced in this paper. POSFORM is characterized by solution accuracy, user-friendliness, applicability and extensibility. Basic principles and capabilities of the program were introduced. Several application examples found in cold or hot forging companies of automotive or mechanical parts were given.

A design methodology is applied for manufacturing a disk-brake piston component and a washing machine container. The design criteria are the limit drawing ratio and the forging load within the available press limit. Also, the final product should not have any geometrical defect. The rigid-plastic and elastic-plastic FEM have been applied to simulate both of the conventional manufacturing processes, respectively, which include deep drawing and forging process. Simulations of one stage process from a selected stock to the final product shape are performed for generating information on additional requirements for metal flow. The best manufacturing processes are selected, which is using a hemispherical punch in the deep drawing process for both disk-brake piston component and washing machine container.

This paper investigates a new method to design blocker geometry in rib-web type closed die forging. By examining various forging and blocker geometries, it was found that blocker geometry can be generated by eliminating high frequency mode from finisher geometry. In order to formalize the procedure, low pass filters, which can convert finisher to blocker geometry, are proposed. Also discrete Fourier transform is used for computational efficiency. The blocker geometry designed by the present method are compared with the one by an experienced designer. The blocker geometries are also validated by using FEM simulation. Present results shows that the frequency approach may offer a promising method to design blocker automatically.

In this paper, we have proposed a new method to determine the initial billet for the forged products using a function approximation in neural networks. the architecture of neural network is a three-layer neural network and the back propagation algorithm is employed to train the network. By utilizing the ability of function approximation of neural network, an optimal billet is determined by applying nonlinear mathematical relationship between shape ratio in the initial billet and the final products. A volume of incomplete filling in the die is measured by the rigid-plastic finite element method. The neural network is trained with the initial billet shape ratio and that of the un-filled volume. After learning, the system is able to predict the filling region which are exactly the same or slightly different to results of finite element method. It is found that the prediction of the filling shape ratio region can be made successfully and the finite element method results are represented better by the neural network.

In order to improve the productivity of cold forging at low production cost, an integrated system's approach is necessary in handling the material preparation and the optimum process design, considering the forming machines, tooling, and operation including quality control. As the first step toward this approach, an expert system for multi-stage cold forging process design for fasteners with various head geometries is developed using Prolog language on IBM 486 PC. For effective representation of the complex part geometries, the system uses the multiple element input, and the forward inference scheme in determination of the initial billet size and intermediate forging steps. In order to determine intermediate steps, the basic empirical rules for extrusion, heading, and trimming were applied. The required forming loads and global strain distributions at each forging step were calculated and displayed on the PC monitor. The designed process sequence drawing can be obtained by AutoCAD. The developed system will be useful in reducing trial and error of design engineers in determining the diameter and height of the initial cylindrical billet from the final product geometry and the intermediate necessary sequences.

The thermomechanical elasto-plastic problems in hot forging of the porous metals are analyzed using the thermo-elasto-plastic finite element method. This finite element program has been formulated using the yield condition advanced by Lee and Kim and developed using the thermo-elasto-plastic time integration procedure. Thermomechanical responses and densification behaviors of the porous metals during hot forging are calcucated at various initial relative densities, strain rates and temperatures. The calculated results are in good agreement with experimental data.

Finite element analysis of material deformation is successfully utilized to understand metal forming processes such as forging, extrusion and deep drawing. However, such analysis involves contact problems; a free node touches a die surface and a contact node slips along the die surface. In the present investigation, appropriate contact algorithms were developed assuming that a three dimensional surface can be divided into bilinear patches and that nodal velocities are linear during an incremental time. The algorithms were coded into a computer program and tested for a simple surface. Comparison of the test result with that obtained from a commercial code is presented and discussed.

Process design is one of the most important fields in metal forming, where the finite element method has appeared a useful method for industrial applications. In this study, a program using the rigid plastic finite element has been developed for preform design in three-dimensional plastic deformation. The surface integration for calculation of the friction between die and workpiece has been implemented with care in numerical treatment. The developed program is applied to a precision coining process for designing an optimal punch.