Finite Similitude in Metal Forming

Scaled experimentation founded on dimensional analysis has a long history but has to-date achieved little success in complex metal-forming applications. This is particularly true for thermo-mechanical processes, where scaled experimentation is recognised to provide little insight. It is shown in this paper that current similarity approaches in continuum physics can be overly prescriptive. The concept of finite similitude is introduced, which is shown to be better suited to finite-element analysis for the design of scaled experiments.