Formability Characteristics Of Lightweight Bimetallic Al1050Ss304 Composite

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to characterize the formability of newlinean alternative lightweight material to the traditional sheet metals used for the newlinemanufacturing of aerospace and automobile components. The feasibility of forming newlinethe alternative material is verified by performing the deep drawing process. In newlinethis study, the significance of the geometrical and process parameters on the deep newlinedrawing behaviour of the Aluminium (Al1050)/ Stainless Steel (SS304) bimetallic newlineaxis-symmetric composite cup is investigated by using numerical and experimental newlineapproaches. The deep drawing analysis is carried by using the finite element softwarepackage following the suggested number of trials by Taguchi analysis. The obtained results are further utilised for the process optimization and identification of the most significant influencing parameter using statistical tools. The parallel approach has been developed by using an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm for the behavior prediction of the deep drawn sandwich composite material with the validation by using an experimental approach. The different parameters are focused on the elimination of the observed defects such as thickening, thinning, tearing, wrinkling, and de-lamination. The prediction of such defects is carried out by using strain non-uniformity index (SNI) and forming limit diagram (FLD) approach. The experimentally obtained strain distribution is utilised for the generation of FLD whereas the numerically accounted thickness strain distribution is integrated with the SNI approach for investigation of the failure location. The internal defects which were missed out are detected by using non-destructive testing (NDT) such as scanning electron microscope (SEM) and radiography test. The 37.6 % weight reduction is achieved for Al1050/SS304 sandwich composite sheet as compared to the SS304 sheet. Along with the weight reduction, required punch force and blank holder force for deep drawing of cup has been reduced. The low thickness variation becomes the added.