A Practical Approach to Analysis of Hydro-Mechanical Deep Drawing of Superalloy Sheet Metals Using Finite Element Method

Hydro-mechanical deep drawing (HDD) is one of the most convenient processes in which a sheet metal is drawn against a counter pressure rather than a rigid die in conventional stampings. This process has been increasingly used to produce aerospace and automotive components. More recently, aerospace industry is demanding new materials with capability to produce high strength to weight ratio products. Moreover on hydro-mechanical deep drawing investigations, numerical considerations are used in order to design the process parameters to produce a cost-effective with high quality components. While, this process has not been investigated for superalloy cups. Nickle-based superalloy sheet metals are more prominent in aviation and spaceflight industries. In this paper, numerical simulation of hydro-mechanical deep drawing for Haynes230 nickle based superalloy has been investigated. Moreover, the pressure paths which yield rupture and wrinkling have been realized. Furthermore, differences between applying uniform and gradual pressure into the pressure chamber have been detected to nominate a pressure path for successfully producing a superalloy cup made by HDD. Subsequent to that, chamber pressure against punch travel curves was depicted. For this investigation, 3-D finite element method was employed and the results obtained from numerical simulation were validated using experimental data already available in the literature.