Viscous pressure bulging of aluminium alloy sheet at warm temperatures

Improving the formability of aluminium alloy sheet metal by using warm or elevated temperature has become a valid approach. In this paper, viscous pressure bulging (VPB) at warm temperature is proposed. The coupled thermo-mechanical finite element method and experimental method were used to investigate the VPB of aluminium alloy AA3003 at warm temperature. The temperature distributions of sheet metal and viscous medium were analyzed for non-isothermal VPB. The influence of forming temperature on thickness distribution, forming load and failure location of sheet metal were investigated. Research results show the temperature gradient field in sheet metal forms when the initial temperature of viscous medium is lower than that of sheet metal. The formability and failure location of sheet metal changes with initial temperature of viscous medium.