NUMERICAL STUDY ON HOLE EXPANSION TESTS OF METAL SHEETS

Abstract

In this work, a numerical analysis of the hole expansion test is presented. This analysis focuses on the impact that certain geometric and material features have on the strain path and maximum values achieved for the principal strains, during the test. The features analysed are the die diameter, the sheet thickness and the material hardening behaviour. In order to study the impact of each feature individually, a reference study case was defined, which strictly follows the ISO 16630 standard, to serve as a basis of comparison. Then, other study cases were created from the reference one, by changing each feature in study. The results show that a uniaxial tension strain path is observed at the outer edge of the blank hole, which is not significantly changed with the variation of the features under study.