Aluminum alloy (Al-alloy) thin-walled (D/t > 20, diameter D, wall thickness t) bent tubes have attracted increasing applications in many industries with mass quantities and diverse specifications due to satisfying high strength to weigh ratio requirements of product manufacturing. However, due to nonlinear nature of bending with coupling effects of multiple factors, the similarity theory seems not applicable and there occurs a challenge for efficient and reliable evaluation of the bending formability of thin-walled tube with various bending specifications. Considering the unequal deformation and three major instabilities, the bending formability of thin-walled Al-alloy tube in changing tube sizes such as D and t are clarified via both the analytical and FE modeling/ simulations. The experiments of rotary draw bending are conducted to validate the theoretical models and further confirm 'size effect' related bending formability. The major results show that (1) The anti-wrinkling capability of tube decreases with the larger D and smaller t, and the effect significance of t is larger than that of D even under rigid supports; (2) The wall thinning increases with the larger D and smaller t, and this tendency becomes much more obvious under rigid supports; (3) The cross-section deformation increases with the larger D and smaller t according to the analytical model obtained intrinsic relationship, while this tendency becomes opposite due to the nonlinear role of mandrel die; (4) The size factor D/t can be used as a nondimensional index to evaluate both the bending formability regarding the wall thinning and cross-section deformation.
As one kind of key lightweight components with enormous quantities and diversities, the bent tubular parts have attracted in- creasing applications in aerospace, automobile, etc. Thus, how the inevitable springback behaves under different bending specifications should be fully addressed to efficiently achieve the precision forming of various bent tubes. Taking the medium strength thin-walled 6061-T4 Al-alloy tube as the objective, via the deformation theory of plasticity, explicit/implicit FE method and experimental approaches, we explored and clarified the nonlinear springback rules of the tubes and corresponding mechanisms in universal rotary draw bending regarding angular springback and radius growth by deliberately changing the tube diameter D and wall thickness t. The geometry dependent springback behaviors of thin-walled tube upon cold bending are thus revealed: 1) With the increasing of D, the tangent tensile strain increases and the proportional coefficient decreases, which causes the angular springback to decrease, while the radius springback increases due to the larger bending radius. 2) With the increasing of t, the tangent tensile strain decreases and the proportional coefficient increases, resulting in the increase of both angular springback and radius springback. 3) Under the same D/t, the angular springback varies little, while the radius springback increases with the larger diameter D. 4) The D/t can be used as a reasonable nondimensional index to evaluate the springback angle; as to the radius growth, the individual effects of the D and t should be considered. 5) The verification of the above results was conducted by experiments and analytical analysis.
Warm rotary draw bending provides a feasible method to form the large-diameter thin-walled(LDTW)TC4 bent tubes, which are widely used in the pneumatic system of aircrafts. An accurate prediction of flow behavior of TC4 tubes considering the couple effects of temperature,strain rate and strain is critical for understanding the deformation behavior of metals and optimizing the processing parameters in warm rotary draw bending of TC4 tubes. In this study, isothermal compression tests of TC4 tube alloy were performed from 573 to 873 K with an interval of 100 K and strain rates of 0.001, 0.010 and0.100 s^(-1). The prediction of flow behavior was done using two constitutive models, namely modified Arrhenius model and artificial neural network(ANN) model. The predictions of these constitutive models were compared using statistical measures like correlation coefficient(R), average absolute relative error(AARE) and its variation with the deformation parameters(temperature, strain rate and strain). Analysis of statistical measures reveals that the two models show high predicted accuracy in terms of R and AARE. Comparatively speaking, the ANN model presents higher predicted accuracy than the modified Arrhenius model. In addition, the predicted accuracy of ANN model presents high stability at the whole deformation parameter ranges, whereas the predictability of the modified Arrhenius model has some fluctuation at different deformation conditions. It presents higher predicted accuracy at temperatures of 573–773 K, strain rates of 0.010–0.100 s^(-1)and strain of 0.04–0.32, while low accuracy at temperature of 873 K, strain rates of 0.001 s^(-1)and strain of 0.36–0.48.Thus, the application of modified Arrhenius model is limited by its relatively low predicted accuracy at some deformation conditions, while the ANN model presents very high predicted accuracy at all deformation conditions,which can be used to study the compression behavior of TC4 tube at the temperature range of 573–873 K and the strain rate of 0.001–0
