Experimental and finite element study on the spring back of double curved aluminum/polypropylene/aluminum sandwich sheet

The most prominent feature of sheet material forming process is an elastic recovery phenomenon during unloading which leads to spring back and side wall curl. Metal–polymer laminate sheets are emerging materials that have many potential applications. Therefore evaluation of spring back is mandatory for production of precise products from these new sheet materials. In this paper, the results of spring back evaluation of AA3105/polypropylene/AA3105 sandwich sheet materials have been presented after being subjected to double-curvature forming. Numerical simulation of double-curvature forming process has also been carried out using both implicit and explicit finite element programs. The influences of some geometrical parameters on spring back such as thickness of sandwich sheet and tool curvatures radii have been evaluated.