Numerical analysis of superplastic blow forming of Ti-6Al-4V alloys

The superplastic blow forming of a Ti-6Al-4V sheet into a cylindrical cup has been numerically analysed based on the actual forming process using ABAQUS. A detailed element type study has been performed to eliminate the element dependency in the finite clement analysis. The accuracy and reliability of the proposed finite clement model has been validated in comparison with experimental data. The validation proves that, there is a good agreement between the simulation and the experiment. In addition, the best prediction of the thickness distribution can be obtained using the continuum element. Furthermore, the effects of major factors such as friction coefficient and the strain rate sensitivity index upon the optimum forming pressure-time and thickness distribution of the component have been studied systematically using the proposed finite element model. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.