STRESS-ANALYSIS OF ELASTIC STREAMS IN CONTINUOUS FORMING OPERATIONS

In continuous forming operations, such as strip rolling and drawing, the stream of material deforms purely elastically while travelling towards or away from a plastic working zone. A rigorous account of the inhomogeneous state of stress in elastic streams appears to be lacking, except for a short paper by Hill (1985, J. Mech. Phys. Solids 33, 315-322). This was concerned with isotropic materials and isochoric flows under conditions of plane strain. The analytical framework is now considerably extended to take account of compressibility and elastic orthotropy. The fundamental character of the basic set of field equations is examined thoroughly, and then general solutions are derived for the various regimes. The origin of residual stresses in formed products is considered finally.