GOALI: Constituitive Modeling for Polycrystalline Aluminum Alloy Extrusions and Application to Hydroforming of Thin-Walled Tubes

在这些资助机会学术联络与工业（GOALI）项目中，研究人员将共同开发和使用多晶和唯象本构模型，用于铝合金薄壁挤压件的液压成形过程模拟。 的唯象模型的预测能力将微调和多晶建模结果和实验相结合的验证。 薄壁空心挤压件的液压成形在汽车和材料工业中越来越受到欢迎，用于制造复杂的结构部件，如仪表板梁和发动机支架。 与传统冲压相比，管材液压成形的主要优点是可以仅用一个部件代替一个部件的组装。 这导致焊接操作次数的减少和制造成本的显著增加。由铝合金管制造的部件也将大大减轻结构的重量。 为了优化给定液压成形操作的条件，对该过程进行了数值模拟。然而，现实的预测可以实现只有准确的数学描述的材料行为（本构模型），特别是铝合金管。 迄今为止，大多数液压成形零件都是用钢制造的，而对铝合金管材液压成形的研究很少，本项目的最终目标是在工业环境的限制下，开发最精确的现象学方程和一套准则，为铝合金薄壁挤压件的液压成形提供尽可能好的材料描述。 这将加速这些材料的液压成形部件的扩散。

In these Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project, the investigators will jointly develop and use polycrystalline and phenomenological constitutive models for hydroforming process simulations of aluminum alloy thin-walled extrusions. The predictive capability of the phenomenological models will be fine-tuned and validated with a combination of polycrystalline modeling results and experiments. Hydroforming of thin-walled hollow extrusions has become popular with automotive and materials industries for making complex structural components, such as instrument panel beam and engine cradle. The main advantage of tube hydroforming, in comparison with conventional stamping, is the potential to replace an assembly of parts by only one component. This leads to a reduction of the number of welding operations and to substantial gains in manufacturing costs. Components manufactured from aluminum alloy tubes would translate into significant weight saving for the structure as well. In order to optimize the conditions for a given hydroforming operation, numerical simulations of the process are carried out. However, realistic predictions can be achieved only with accurate mathematical descriptions of the material behavior (constitutive models), specifically for aluminum alloy tubes. To date, most of the hydroformed parts are made with steel and very little research has been performed on hydroforming of aluminum alloy tubes.The ultimate goal of the project is to develop the most accurate phenomenological equations and a set of guidelines to provide, within the constraints existing in industrial environments, the best possible material description for hydroforming of aluminum alloy thin-walled extrusions. This should accelerate the proliferation of hydroformed parts for these materials.