Analysis of asymmetric roller forming using finite element method and slab method

Roller forming is a process to bend thick flat plates into curved plates using two roller presses. The mechanism is a transient three-dimensional asymmetric elastoplastic deformation. This paper presents analytical and numerical analyses of the roller forming. In the analysis of asymmetric plane strain rolling, the effect of asymmetry resulted from different radii and velocities of two rollers is investigated analytically and numerically. As an analytical model, the slab method is employed. And an explicit dynamic finite element modeling is carried out for comparison. From the results, roller separation forces and pressure distributions of the analytical model show good agreement with those of the numerical model. On the basis of two-dimensional analysis, a numerical analysis of the three-dimensional asymmetric roller forming is carried out using explicit finite element method. For the verification of the proposed analysis, it is shown that a convex-type curved plate can be formed by the asymmetric roller forming.