Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Cold Stretching of Aluminum Sheets Using an Instrumented Bench

Abstract

Cold stretching of a thin 5154 aluminium sheet is studied. An instrumented bench is developed to analyse the forming of double curvature panels. A numerical tool using ABAQUS software is developed to predict the behaviour of thin sheets during the stretching process and also to estimate the residual mechanical field in the formed shapes. The bench is calibrated by comparing experiments and numerical results in terms of deformed shape, in-plane strain levels and thickness evolution.