DEVELOPMENT OF A SAMPLE TUTORIAL FOR METAL FORMING USING ADVANCED COMPUTER AIDED ENGINEERING TOOLS

摘要

In this paper, a sample tutorial has been developed using advanced CAE tools like HyperWorks and LS-Dyna. The work outlined in this paper is routinely carried by experienced engineers in an industry environment. However, it is believed that the tutorial presented here is believed to be unique in an educational setup. Although many CAE software offer online tutorials relevant to the use of that specific software, there are very few if any that offer help sheets that require a user to switch between different software for carrying out the numerical simulations. A senior level course on metal forming simulation requires the use of various CAE tools to do solid modeling and to carry out the finite element modeling and analysis. An assessment to measure the effectiveness of the use of this tutorial is yet to be fully developed, but it appears based on preliminary survey that the students seem to have appreciated the ease with which the simulations can be carried out based on this tutorial. Also due to an increased demand for trained engineers in the metal forming area such tutorials are very helpful as a first step. A step by step procedure has been written that integrates the use of different CAE tools for metal forming simulation of an example instrument panel (IP) used in automotive applications. As a first step, solid modeling of the individual sheet metal component using different CAD programs like Unigraphics is discussed. A discussion on how these solid models can be imported to different CAE programs to be meshed and then subsequently used in high-end solvers like HyperForm and LSDyna is then presented. The analyses that were conducted for this tutorial included formability of the individual component. Design of Experiments used in this study is also briefly discussed. The main purpose of doing these types of analyses is to choose the optimum design based on the set constraints. The DOE studies presented in this paper can be adapted in an educational environment. DOE was done to determine the effects that the input factors have on the results of the forming simulations that were conducted. This integrated study can be used in a senior manufacturing simulation course. Finally, the results of this study are discussed and recommendations for future work presented.