Finite Element Analysis of the Hydro-mechanical Punching Process

This paper investigates the characteristics of a hydro-mechanical punching process. The hydro-mechanical punching process is divided into two stages: the first stage is the mechanical half piercing in which an upper punch goes down before the initial crack is occurred; the second stage is the hydro punching in which a lower punch goes up until the final fracture is occurred. Ductile fracture criteria such as the Cockcroft, Brozzo and Oyane are adopted to predict the fracture of sheet material. The index values of ductile fracture criteria are calculated with a user material subroutine, VUMAT in the ABAQUS Explicit. The hydrostatic pressure retards the initiation of a crack in the upper region of the blank and induces another crack in the lower region of the blank during the punching process. The final fracture zone is placed at the middle surface of the blank to the thickness direction. The result demonstrates that the hydro-mechanical punching process makes a finer shearing surface than the conventional one as hydrostatic pressure increases.

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