Finite Element Method Applications in Bulk Forming

Abstract

Metalworking, with its thousands of years of history, is one of the oldest and most important materials processing technologies. During the last 30 years, with the continuous improvement of computing technology and the finite element method (FEM) as well as the competition for a lower-cost and better-quality product, metalworking has evolved rapidly. This article gives a summary of overall development of the FEM and its contribution to the materials forming industry. Because significant efforts were carried out with great success by many universities and research institutes with a similar objective and application, this article is focused on the overall philosophy and evolution of the FEM for solving bulk forming issues. The program used to demonstrate this success is the commercial code named DEFORM (Scientific Forming Technologies Corp.). A number of examples of the application of FEM to various bulk forming processes are also summarized. Seven occurrences of 6061, mainly in text.