A tee is the most common pipefitting used to combine or divide fluid flow. Tees can connect pipes of different diameters or change the direction of a pipe run. To manufacture tee type of stainless steel pipe, combinations of punch piercing and burr forming have been widely used in the industry. However, such method is considerably time consuming with regard to performing empirical work necessary to attain process conditions to prevent upper end tearing of the tee product and meet target tee height. Numerous experiments have shown that the piercing profile is the main cause of defects mentioned above. Furthermore, the mold design is formed through trial and error according to pipe diameters and changes in requirements. Thus, the objective of this study was to perform piercing and burring process analysis via finite element analysis using DYNAFORM to resolve problems mentioned above. An optimization design method was used to determine the piercing punch profile. Three radii of the piercing punch (i.e., large, small, and joined radii) were selected as design variables to minimize thinning of a tee pipe. Based on results of correlation and multiple regression analyses, we developed a predictive approximation model to satisfy requirements for both thickness reduction and target height. The new piercing punch profile was then applied to actual tee forming using the developed prediction equation. Model results were found to be in good agreement with experimental results.

Vehicle weight reduction is a known strategy to improve fuel efficiency and strengthen exhaust gas regulation. The use of high strength steel can satisfy safety, efficiency, emission, manufacturability, durability, and cost requirements. However, springback of high strength steel results in undesired shape defects. Springback is one of the most important issues of high strength steel for many applications in an automobile. Servo press has various capabilities to improve defects, process conditions, and productivity problems when forming a high strength steel. Especially, servo press can be set to function with variable slide motion in a single operation. In this study, the effect of servo press slide motion on 980MPa high strength steel was investigated through U-bending test.

Magnesium alloy shows strong anisotropy and asymmetric behavior in tension and compression curve, especially at room temperature. These characteristics limit the application of finite element method (FEM) which is based on conventional continuum mechanics. To accurately predict the material behavior of magnesium alloy at microstructural level, a methodology of fully coupled multiscale simulation is presented and a crystal plasticity model as a constitutive equation in the simulation of metal forming process is introduced in this study. The existing constitutive equation for rigid plastic FEM is modified to accommodate deviatoric stress component and its derivatives with respect to strain rate components. Viscoplastic self-consistent (VPSC) polycrystal model was selected as a constitutive model because it was regarded as the most robust model compared to Taylor model or Sachs model. Stiffness matrix and load vector were derived based on the new approach and implemented into $DEFORM^{TM}-3D$ via a user subroutine handling stiffness matrix at an elemental level. The application to extrusion and rolling process of pure magnesium is presented in this study to assess the validity of the proposed multiscale process.

In this paper, finite element stamping analysis was carried out for the front lower arm to examine the applicability of solid element with damage theory to predict shear fracture phenomena induced by sheared edge as well as deformation mechanisms. Mechanical properties related to deformation and damage theory were determined from tensile test. Shear fracture was predicted by normalized Cockcroft-Latham model with initial imposition of the damage value along the sheared edge. Simulation results illustrated that the analysis with solid element and damage theory predicted edge profile, strain distribution, and forming load more accurately than the analysis with shell element. Simulation with solid element can also predict the shear fracture more exactly comparing to analysis with shell element and forming limit curve.

In this paper, a design method for an intermediate die was developed to manufacture a hollow linear motion guide rail in mandrel drawing process based on virtual die method and backward tracing scheme. FE simulations and mandrel drawing experiments using Mn55Cr carbon steel were performed to prove the effectiveness of the proposed design method. Results of FE simulations and experiments showed that the proposed design method could lead to drawn products with sound shape and the highest dimensional precision.

This study investigated the microstructure, tensile strength, and high cycle fatigue properties of ADC12 aluminum alloys with different $Mg+Al_2Ca$ contents manufactured using die casting process. Microstructural observation identified the presence of ${\alpha}-Al$, eutectic Si, $Al_2Cu$, and Fe-intermetallic phases. The increase of $Mg+Al_2Ca$ content resulted in finer pore size and decreased pore distribution. Room temperature tensile strength tests were conducted at strain rate of $1{\times}10^{-3}/sec$. For 0.6%Mg ADC12, measured UTS, YS, and El were 305.2MPa, 157.0MPa, and 2.7%, respectively. For 0.8%Mg ADC12, measured UTS, YS, and El were 311.2 MPa, 159.4 MPa, and 2.4%, respectively. Therefore, 0.8% ADC12 alloy had higher strength and slightly decreased elongation compared to 0.6% Mg ADC12. High cycle fatigue tests revealed that 0.6% Mg ADC12 alloy had a fatigue limit of 150 MPa while 0.8% Mg ADC12 had a fatigue limit of 160MPa. It was confirmed that $Mg+Al_2Ca$ added ADC12 alloy achieved finer, spherical eutectic Si particles, and $Al_2Cu$ phases with greater mechanical and fatigue properties since size and distribution of pores and shrinkage cavities decreased as $Mg+Al_2Ca$ content increased.

In the high-speed forming analysis, dynamic material properties considering a high strain rate are required. The split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) experiment was performed for measuring dynamic material properties under high strain rate. The pulse shaping method was used to improve the accuracy of the SHPB experiment. A pulse shaper attached to the front of the incident bar was used for specimen dynamic stress equilibrium through stress wave control. Numerical analysis and SHPB test were performed to verify whether the pulse shaper affects the dynamic stress equilibrium in copper and Al6061 specimens. The results of SHPB test and numerical analysis show that the pulse shaper contributes to the dynamic stress equilibrium. Based on the improved stress equilibrium using a pulse shaper, the flow stress curves for copper and Al6061 materials were obtained at strain rates of 1344.4/sec and 1291.6/sec, respectively.