A Simple Analysis for Bend-Stretch Forming of Aluminum

Extrusions
Edmundo Corona

Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556

Abstract. Bend-stretch forming is a cold-forming operation used to bend initially straight, usually tubular, aluminum
extrusions. The process consists of bending the parts over a curved die in the presence of axial tension. Higher tensions
reduce the possibility of buckling and reduce the springback of the part but can induce relatively large, permanent cross-
sectional distortions. These distortions can be mitigated by pressurizing the part during bending. This work presents a simple
and efficient section analysis that can be used to predict the cross-sectional deformations of extrusions with relatively arbitrary,
thin-walled cross-sectional shapes. The numerical implementation has short run times and is well-suited for preliminary design
calculations. Comparison with experimental results published in the literature has been very good.

INTRODUCTION Grip
A-A
Extrusion Pivot

Bend-stretch forming is a cold-forming process used to Tension

Actuator Die
bend initially straight parts of open or closed cross-
section and is well suited to bend aluminum extrusions
such as automobile bumpers [1] and space-frame com- A-A

ponents.
Figure 1 shows a simplified schematic of bend-stretch
forming. In step 1 of the process the ends of the part are
placed in grips attached to two actuators. The actuators 2

apply tension to the part. In step

2 the die pushes against
the tensioned part, thus bending it. One common practice
mentioned in the literature is to maintain constant tension A-A

during the bending process. In several experimental stud-

ies, the value of tension has been kept in the vicinity of
the yield tension. In step 3 the tension is released and 3
the die retracted. At this point the part undergoes some
spring-back, so its final curvature is somewhat smaller
than that of the die. A-A
The role of the tension is to reduce the likelihood
of buckling and to reduce the spring-back of the part. FIGURE 1. Schematic of the steps in bend-stretch forming
Tension, however, has the undesirable side effect that it
can induce large distortions of the cross-sectional shape
of the extrusion [1], [2] so it must be used judiciously. be using during preliminary design to quickly assess the
The cross-sectional distortion is shown schematically role of the major parameters of the process without large
in the inserts of Fig. 1 for a rectangular cross-section. investments of time and resources. Simple formulations
This distortion can be reduced in tubular extrusions by for rectangular tubes under bend-stretch forming were
applying internal pressure (or vacuum) [3]. developed in [3] and [4] based on a formulation for bend-
Although large-scale finite element simulations of this ing of rectangular tubes [5]. The objective of this work
manufacturing process are useful in the later design is to extend the section analysis in [4] to accommodate
stages, there is a need to have simple models that can more general cross-sections.

CP712, Materials Processing and Design: Modeling, Simulation and Applications, NUMIFORM 2004,
edited by S. Ghosh, J. C. Castro, and J. K. Lee
2004 American Institute of Physics 0-7354-0188-8/04/$22.00
1130
 A
A
MY MY
T T
1/ Z
(a)
P
Y X
MY P ing a residual lateral deflection may appear.
MZ Z and then defining the segments. Each segment must be
A-A
(b)
FIGURE 2. (a) Loads and geometry of the extrusion during
the simulation of the bend-stretch process, (b) example of
extrusion cross-section and global coordinates.
This paper will summarize a formulation for sec-
tion analysis of parts subjected to bend-stretch forming
whose cross-sections can be constructed from straight
lines and circular arcs. The shape of the cross-section can
otherwise be arbitrary. The numerical implementation of
the formulation will then be used in two examples avail-
able in the literature. A more detailed exposition of the
formulation and its capabilities has been presented in [6].
FORMULATION
The formulation considers a part subjected to combined
tension (T ), internal pressure (P), and bending over a
model die with radius 1/ Z as shown in Fig. 2(a). Due
to the geometric and material nonlinearities present, the
loads are prescribed incrementally. In order to allow for
a section analysis, the model die has a peculiar character-
istic in that its curvature changes during the bending pro-
cess. It always matches the curvature of the concave side
of the part. To simulate bending over an actual die of ra-
dius Rd , z is incremented until it equals 1/Rd . This idea
was used successfully in [4]. The cross-section can be
made of an arbitrary combination of straight and circular
arc segments. All segments making up the cross-section
are assumed to be relatively thin.
1131
Kinematics
The kinematics are based on customary shell-type as-
sumptions for small strains and moderate rotations. Con-
sider a part with cross-section as shown in Fig. 2(b). The
cross-section lies in the plane defined by the Y and Z
axes, while the X axis is in the axial direction of the
member1. The curvature of the part at the origin of the
coordinates is Z . Note that in this case Z will be some-
what smaller than the curvature of the model die, Z . For
sections that are unsymmetric about the X and Y axes a
transverse curvature Y may develop unless the part is
constrained from lateral deflections. Still, upon unload-
The initial geometry of the cross-section is specified
by first defining the Y -Z coordinates of a set of nodes,
bounded by two nodes. In the example shown in Fig.
2(b), the cross-section would have four nodes, one at
each corner of the rectangular part, four straight seg-
ments and one arc segment. In order to maintain simplic-
ity in the formulation, contact between the die and the
part is restricted to occur at discrete points. In the exam-
ple shown, contact is expected at the two lower corners.
If penetration of the die results at other points (it could
occur if P is large enough) then the displacement of the
lower segment can be constrained at points in the vicinity
of the penetration to moderate it.
Here, only sections made of straight segments will be
considered, and so the presentation of the formulation
will be limited to that case. The complete formulation,
including arc segments, has been presented in [6].
Consider the straight segment shown in Fig. 3(a). The
local coordinates of the segment are s along the segment
and z in the through-thickness direction. The initial ge-
ometry of the segment is specified by the location of the
point s = 0 given by Yo and Zo , the orientation angle , as
well as the length lo and the thickness t of the segment.
The position z = 0 is located at the mid-surface of the
segment, indicated by the dashed line.
During deformation, the line ab moves to a0 b0 thus
carrying the point A to A0 as shown in more detail in
Fig. 3(b). The displacement components of the mid-
surface are v and w along the original s and z directions
respectively. The rotation of the line ab is approximated
by2
= w0 . (1)
1 Variables in upper case refer to the global coordinate system, while
those in lower case refer to quantities local to each segment. Note
X = x.
2 ( )0 = d( ) .
ds
 MY Y X segments come together. Two constraint equations are
O used to ensure compatibility of displacements and one to
ensure compatibility of rotation between two segments.
Zo
z Yo Therefore, at a node where M segments come together,
3(M 1) constraint equations need to be enforced. At
a junction between, for example, two straight segments
A
A
s having orientation angles 1 and 2 as well as displace-
a
b
a ment components v1 , w1 and v2 , w2 , the two displace-
lo
b ment compatibility conditions can be written in terms of
Z
t the displacement components in the Y and Z directions
MZ as follows:
(a)
v2 cos 2 + w2 sin 2 v1 cos 1 w1 sin 1 = 0

v2 sin 2 w2 cos 2 v1 sin 1 + w1 cos 1 = 0.(7)

a w The rotation constraint requires that the angle between

A segments at a junction remain unchanged. For the current
example, if the rotations of the two members at the
b a
A junction are 1 and 2 , then the compatibility condition
is
2 1 = 0. (8)
v b
In addition to the compatibility constraints, at least
three more constraints must be specified to prevent rigid
(b) body motion of the cross-section and to ensure contact
with the die. More than three additional constraints may
FIGURE 3. Kinematics of straight segments. (a) Definition be prescribed if the die constrains the deformation of the
of geometric parameters, (b) detail of deflections.
cross-section in additional ways.

The axial strain component of point A is given by

Constitutive Behavior
x = xo + Z Y (2)
The material behavior can be modeled with various in-
where xo is the axial strain at O and cremental plasticity models. The predictions will depend
on the model used to some degree. Recent studies [7],
= Zo + (s + v) sin w cos + [8] have shown that the shape of the yield surface can
z( cos + sin ) have an effect on the predicted deformation of the cross-
= Yo + (s + v) cos + w sin + section. Similarly, the results can depend on the harden-
z(sin + cos ). (3) ing rule when kinematic hardening is used [9]. In this
work we incorporate the simplifying assumptions of J2 -
The strain component of point A along s is given by type classical plasticity. The strain increment is decom-
posed into elastic and plastic components
s = so + s z (4)
d i j = d iej + d ipj . (9)
where so is the membrane strain component given by
Elastic deformations are isotropic with Youngs modulus
1 1
so = v0 + (v0 )2 + (w0 )2 (5) E and Poissons ratio . They are related to the stress
2 2 increments through
and, the local curvature is given by
1
d iej = [(1 + )d i j d kk i j ] . (10)
s = 0 = w00 . (6) E
Since the cross-section is made of several independent Plastic deformations obey the flow rule
segments that have their own local coordinate systems
1 f f
 
and displacements, it is necessary to enforce compati- p
d i j = d mn . (11)
bility of deformations at the nodes where two or more H mn i j

1132
For the biaxial state of stress of interest, f is given by where N p is the number of segments subjected to pres-
r sure. For straight segments:
1
f = x2 x s + 2 s2 = e max (12) P lo i
i
S
Z
Wpi [Yo v0i sin i w0i cos i


=
2 0
where e max is the maximum value of f in the stress
Zoi v0i cos i + w0i sin i (18)


history and
so (si + vi ) w0i w0i vi + wi v0i + (1 + v0i) wi ]dsi .
S= (13)
xo
where xo and so are the initial yield stresses in the The integral in (18) must be computed in a counter-
x and s directions respectively. Here, the condition that clockwise direction around the pressurized part of the
zo = so has been assumed. Prior to first yield the yield cross-section.
function is f = ox . The plastic tangent modulus H is In order to implement the formulation numerically, the
evaluated using the three-parameter Ramberg-Osgood fit displacement components vi and wi for each straight seg-
of the uniaxial stress-strain curve of the material: ment are approximated using the following trigonometric
series expansions:
3 n1
"   #

= 1+ (14) Ni
n si N i
i
n si
E 7 y wi = oi + ni cos + n sin i
n=1 loi n=1 lo
up to a strain value . For larger strain values, the tan- Ni i
n si N i n si
gent modulus remains constant and equal to the tangent vi = oi + ni cos i
+ n sin i (19)
modulus given by (14) when = . n=1 lo n=1 lo

Substituting (19) into (1)-(8), the result into (15) and

using (9)-(14) yields a system of nonlinear algebraic
Principle of Virtual Work (PVW) equations. The unknowns include the coefficients of the
trigonometric series expansions, xo , and the Lagrange
The PVW is used to satisfy equilibrium and takes the multipliers. The loading is conducted in an incremental
following form: manner by prescribing {Z , Y , T , P}. At every
I Z J loading step, the nonlinear algebraic equations are solved
xi xi + sii sii dAi + j C j = T xo + Wp using the Newton-Raphson method. The integrations in


i
i=1 A j=1 (15) are carried out numerically using Gaussian quadra-
(15) ture. Once the solution has been obtained for a given load
where I is the number of segments in the cross-section3, increment, the bending moment about the origin of the
J is the number of constraint equations, j are Lagrange global axes, can be calculated from
multipliers, C j are the constraint equations, T is the
tension applied, Wp is the virtual work done by the I Z
internal pressure and dAi = dsi dzi for straight segments. MY = i
xi i dAi
i=1 A
The term Wp is the virtual work done by the internal
I
pressure and is given by
Z
MZ = xi i dAi . (20)
i
i=1 A
Wp = P (V ) (16)
In most cases, N i = 6, 12 Gauss points along each seg-
where P is the pressure and V is the change in vol- ment and 5 across the thickness are sufficient to obtain
ume of the pressurized part of the cross-section per unit good solutions.
length. The contribution of each segment to the virtual
work is Wpi and

Np EXAMPLES
Wp = Wpi (17)
i=1 Results for two examples will now be presented to illus-
trate the capabilities and use of the formulation. Figure 4
shows the results of the first example, involving a rectan-
3 i indicates the segment number and is used as a subscript of coor- gular tube with width b = 50 mm (1.97 in), height h = 30
dinates and displacement components, but as a superscript of all other mm (1.18 in) and thickness t = 1.78 mm (0.070 in). The
quantities material properties used are those of material I in Table

1133
1. The loading history involved bending in the presence Initial shape b = 50 mm
of internal pressure following the steps shown in Table 2. Final shape h = 30 mm
In the present example, T1 = 0.70To , where To is the yield t = 1.78 mm

tension based on the 0.2% strain offset yield stress (o ), T1 = 0.70 To

P1 = 2.41 bar and Z1 = 1.97 m1 (0.050 in1 ). This P1 = 2.41 bar
z1= 2.03 1/m
corresponds to bending over a die of radius Rd = 0.49 m
(19.4 in). The origin of the global coordinates is at the 4.0 (a)

centroid of the initial shape (the reason Z1 is negative is ho
that the mandrel is located in the positive side of the Z (%) 2.0 h- h

axis). Figure 4(a) shows the initial cross-sectional shape b

of the tube and the calculated final shape. The predicted 0.0
0.02 0.04 0.06
deformation of the cross-section can be easily seen. Fig- | Z ho|
ure 4(b) shows the evolution of the cross-sectional de- -2.0

formation parameter defined as shown in the insert, as

Present
a function of curvature in solid line. Here, the curvature -4.0
Miller et. al.
has been normalized by ho = h t. The figure also in-
cludes results obtained using the formulation presented -6.0
(b)
in [4] in dashed line. The agreement between the results ox
3

is very good. Similar agreement is shown in Fig. 4(c) for (%)

the calculated axial strain at the centroid of the rectangle.
The final bending radius of the bottom of the extrusion is 2

R f = 0.514 m1 (20.2 in).

The second example involves a simulation using the
geometry of an automobile bumper presented in [1]. In 1

this example tubes with initial cross-section as shown

schematically in Fig. 5 (a) were bent over dies of radii
1.3 m (51.2 in) and 2.0 m (78.7 in). The loading his-
tory followed the steps in Table 2 with T1 = 255 kN
(57.3 kips), P1 = 0 and Z1 = 0.752 m1 (0.0191 in1 )
or Z1 = 0.492 m1 (0.0125 in1 ). The tension level cor-
responds to T1 /To = 0.87. The material properties used
in this example are those of material II in Table 1. They
were obtained based on the stress-strain data provided in
[1].
Figures 5 (b) and (c) shows photographs of the final
cross-sections of specimens stretch-bent in [1]. Compar-
ing the predicted middle surface profiles, shown by the
dark line, to the photographs indicates that the differ-
ences between the calculated and measured deflections
are all in the order of half the thickness.
The calculated final radii of the lower surfaces of the
tubes were R f = 1.45 m (57.2 in) and 2.26 m (89.0
in). Since the cross-section does not have a plane of
symmetry, a small moment MZ developed during the
bending phase of the simulation (Y was kept at zero).
Release of this bending moment left the sections slightly
bent in the Y direction, but the radii were large, in the
order of 200 times R f .
0 0.02 0.04 0.06
| Z ho|
(c)
FIGURE 4. Comparison of forming simulation results for
a rectangular tube with internal pressure. (a) Initial and final
cross-sectional shapes, (b) cross-sectional distortion vs. curva-
ture, (c) axial strain vs. curvature.
spring-back of extrusions subjected to bend-stretch form-
ing. The formulation considers the bending of an origi-
nally straight part, with thin-walled cross-section, over
a die in the presence of tension and internal pressure.
Two examples were presented to illustrate the type or
results that can be obtained with this efficient formu-
lation. The advantages of the formulation, compared to
full-scale simulations that faithfully reproduce the ac-
tual forming process, are short running times and ease
in making changes to the geometry of the cross-sections
and to the load levels of the process. The run times for the
examples presented here were in the order of two minutes
in a SUN Ultra-10 workstation.

CONCLUSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper presented a formulation that can be used This work was conducted in cooperation with the Alcoa
to make predictions of cross-sectional distortion and Technical Center, where Drs. F. Pourboghrat and B. T.
Allison coordinated the work. The photographs in Fig. 5

1134
 TABLE 1. Material properties.
Mat. E ox y n S o
MPa MPa MPa MPa
I 74.9 0.3 55.2 93.1 20 1.2 1.0 99.3
II 75.2 0.35 434 290 20 1.2 1.1 292

TABLE 2. Loading history.

Step Action
1 Tension to T1 3.3
2 Pressure to P1 26.35
3 Bend to Z1 3.3 19
4 Release T1 3
5 Release P1 2.7 2.7
6 Release Mz 37.7 37

57
were kindly made available by Prof. M. Langseth. The
help of Prof. S. Kyriakides and Dr. J. E. Miller in the 3.3
28.5
3.3

course of this work is acknowledged with thanks. 29.6

t = 2.7 mm

(a)
REFERENCES
1. Clausen, A.H., Hopperstad, O.S. and Langseth, M.,
Stretch bending of aluminum extrusions for car
bumpers. Journal of Materials Processing Technology,
102, pp. 102-241, 2000.
2. Clausen, A.H., Hopperstad, O.S. and Langseth, M.,
Stretch bending of aluminum extrusions: effect of tensile
sequence, ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics,
125, pp. 521-529, 1999.
3. Miller, J.E., Kyriakides, S. and Bastard, A.H., On
bend-stretch forming of aluminum extruded tubes
I: experiments, International Journal of Mechanical
Sciences, 43, pp. 12831317, 2001. (b)
4. Miller, J.E., Kyriakides, S. and Corona, E., On bend-
stretch forming of aluminum extruded tubesII:
analysis, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences,
43, pp. 13191338, 2001
5. Corona, E. and Vaze, S.P., Buckling of elastic-plastic
square tubes under bending, International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences, 38, pp. 753775, 1996.
6. Corona, E., A Simple Analysis for Bend-Stretch Forming
of Aluminum Extrusions, International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences, under review.
7. Hopperstad, O.S., Berstad, T., Ilstad, H., Lademo, O.G.
and Langseth, M., Effects of the yield criterion on local
deformations in numerical simulation of profile forming,
Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 8081, pp.
551-555, 1998. (c)
8. Miller, J.E. and Kyriakides, S., Three-dimensional
effects of the bend-stretch forming of aluminum tubes, FIGURE 5. Comparison of predicted to actual shapes of the
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 45, pp. car bumper in Fig. 9 in [1] after bend-stretch forming. (a)
115140 , 2003 Initial dimensions. (b) Rd = 1.3 m. (c) Rd = 2.0 m. Photographs
9. Kyriakides, S., Corona, E. and Miller J.E., Effect of yield reproduced with permission.
surface evolution on bending induced cross sectional
deformation of thin-walled sections, International
Journal of Plasticity, in press.

1135
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