Analysis of plastic bending of adhesive-bonded sheet metals taking account of viscoplasticity of adhesive

The present authors proposed a new technique of plastic bending of adhesive-bonded sheet metals. In this process, large transverse shear deformation occurs in the adhesive layer, which in some cases would induce the geometrical imperfection (so-called ‘gull-wing bend’) and the delamination. Since the strength of the adhesive is highly rate-sensitive, the amount of shear deformation of the adhesive layer and, as a result, ‘gull-wing bend’, are strongly influenced by the forming speed. In the present work, the effect of forming speed on the deformation characteristics of adhesively bonded aluminium sheets was investigated by performing V-bending experiments with various punch speeds at room temperature. In order to discuss the effect quantitatively, the numerical simulations for the bending were also conducted using a rate-dependent constitutive model of plasticity for the adhesive. Consequently, it was found that the large shear deformation and ‘gull-wing bend’ are suppressed by high-speed forming since the deformation resistance becomes higher at high strain rate.