The Effect of Flange Length on the Distribution of Longitudinal Strain during the Flexible Roll Forming Process

Flexible roll forming is an advanced sheet metal forming process which allows the production of variable cross-section profiles. In flexible roll forming process, nonuniform transversal distribution of the longitudinal strain can cause the longitudinal bow, which is deviation in height of the web over the length of the profile. To investigate the effect of flange length on the transversal distribution of the longitudinal strain, FEM simulations are conducted with different flange length for three blank shapes; trapezoid, convex and concave. The result shows that the longitudinal strain and longitudinal bow decrease with increasing flange length for a trapezoid and a concave blank. For a convex blank, the longitudinal strain and longitudinal bow increase with increasing flange length. To validate FEM simulation result, numerically obtained longitudinal strain has been compared with experimental results.