Efficient numerical simulation of industrial sheet metal bending processes

In industrial production processes focus is given to high precision, quality, resource efficiency and productivity. In order to achieve these goals, efficient numerical simulation models are required. In the following, we consider an industrial sheet metal bending process, in which the sheet is fixed on one side and formed by a moving tool. On the one hand, there is a very large number of process parameters. On the other hand, the production sites are complex and have to be modelled in detail. Parameter studies are very extensive and take a large numerical effort. Therefore high efficient simulation tools are necessary to handle this challenge. In this paper two strategies for increasing the efficiency of modelling are investigated. First, the main focus is set to an efficient Finite Element model for sheet bending. Two Finite Element formulations are compared based on 3D-continuum elements and continuum shell elements. Secondly, a proper normalized formulation (similarity solution) of the bending process is derived starting from a reduced-order model, which subsequently is successfully applied to the complex bending process. Utilizing the concept of similarity, the number of cases in parameter studies can be reduced significantly.