Experimental Study of Steam Hydroforming of Aluminum Sheet Metal

This work presents an experimental study of aluminum sheet forming. A steam hydroforming process that takes advantage of the coupling between the thermal and mechanical loads applied to the sheet metal is introduced. The results confirm the feasibility of the forming process. The effects of variation of the supplied electrical power on the hydroforming temperature and steam pressure are studied. In addition, the evolution of strains and stresses in metal sheets are analyzed. The experimental results show that the supplied electrical power increases the heating rate and has no effect bursting temperature or pressure. Moreover, the evolution of the vapor pressure as a function of temperature is independent from the supplied electrical power and the deformation in the thin sheets under the steam pressure decreases the stress flow and raises the plastic deformation.