Study on Hydroforming Process of a Copper Tube Using Finite Element Method

In recent years, a lot of investigations have been performed in order to analyze the tube hydroforming process. Uniformity of thickness and low cost are the most significant advantages of this process widely used in automotive industries because of the weight reduction and high strength. In tube hydroforming process, a tube is inserted in between dies and the hydraulic pressure will be increased till tube and die have contact with each other. Since there are some significant parameters such as friction between the dies and tube, initial thickness and internal pressure which can affect the bulge height of hydro formed tube, the process is simulated by FEA packages ABAQUS. Then, stress and displacement of tube are calculated and their effects are discussed on bulge height of product. Also Von Mises stress on a critical path of tube in different internal pressures is investigated. The results can be used before any experimental test to achieve the desired product.