Formability of spherical and large aluminum sheets

The novel aluminum alloy AlMgSc (AA5028) shows a high potential for aeronautical applications, especially to replace the currently used material for structural components within metallic aircraft fuselages [1]. As AlMgSc sheets cannot be stretch formed at room temperature due to cracking in the clamping zones, an alternative technology called “creep-forming” was investigated by Jambu [2]. Nevertheless, creep-forming is only applicable for panels to be formed in moulds with small curvatures, because shaping double-curved geometries with small radii of curvature tends to buckling [3]. Hence, the formability of large spherical aluminum sheets as double-curved geometries is investigated.