Numerical Analysis of Rubber Assisted Sheet Hydro-Forming Process and its Experimental Verification

Rubber assisted sheet hydro forming process is an upcoming technology, which improves the quality of finished product. The final formed products obtained from process are free from wrinkling. This process is similar to hydro-forming process. In this process, thin rubber pad is used to separate the blank (sheet metal) from the pressurized liquid media. The aim of the present work is to model the rubber assisted sheet hydro-forming process using finite element method and to validate the numerical model by carrying out experiment. The finite element model of this process has been developed in ABAQUS/Explicit finite element software. Non-linear material properties for both rubber and blank have been considered in the analysis. The effects of punch cone angles on the sheet thickness variation have been studied. Also, the variation of von-Mises stress has been studied for different cup cone angles.