Reliability Analysis of the Tube Hydroforming Process Based on Forming Limit Diagram

Tube hydroforming has become an increasingly attractive manufacturing process in automotive industry due to it having several advantages over alternative methods. The forming limit diagram has been extensively used in metal forming as the criteria of formability. A method to assess the probability of failure of the process based on reliability theory and the forming limit diagram is proposed in this paper. The tube hydroforming process is affected by many parameters such as geometry, material properties, and process conditions. Finite element simulation was used to predict the relationship between the strain and these parameters, and a numerical method was applied to get the statistical distribution of the strain. Based on the forming limit band in the forming limit diagram, the reliability of the forming process can be evaluated. A tube hydroforming process of free bulging is then introduced as an example to illustrate the approach. The results show this reliability evaluation technique to be an innovative approach for product designers and process engineers to avoid failure during tube hydroforming.