FE simulation of complex contour forming of sheet metals based on laser bending

Laser bending is a flexible forming process which forms sheet metal by means of stresses induced by external heat instead of external forces. In this paper, a three-dimensional coupled thermal-mechanical model for numerical simulation is established with finite element code ABAQUS. Some key problems about the simulation of laser bending are investigated in detail, and the reasonable solutions are presented. Taking AISI-1008 steel as an example, numerical simulations are carried out for the complex contour forming of sheet by using Sequentially Coupled Thermal-Stress Analysis technique. Then the corresponding experiments are performed to validate the simulation results. Good correlation between the numerical simulation and the experimental results was demonstrated.