Effect of Tube Material and Heat Treatment Temperatures on Tube Formability During Tube Hydroforming Process

Tube hydroforming (THF) is a process that makes use of fluid means to form the tubular samples into desired form. In the present work, two materials SS 304 and AA-1100 tube samples were heat-treated at various temperatures, viz., as-received, 150 °C, 200 °C and 250 °C to know their effect on the formability. Heat-treated samples were tested for the mechanical properties using universal testing machine, and the obtained results were utilized for carrying out the numerical simulations of THF process. Simulations were performed at various L / D ratios to attain various strain paths with different heat treatment temperature results. The effects of the aforementioned parameters on bulge height, internal pressure and FLD were investigated. The obtained results from both the materials through numerical simulations were validated by the analytical model. The simulation results were observed to be in good agreement with the analytical model.