Warm forming simulation of titanium tailor-welded blanks with experimental verification

The simulation of the forming process of Ti-TWBs at elevated temperatures using finite element analysis to determine the optimum forming conditions of Ti-TWBs is presented in this paper. For verification of the simulation results, titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) was selected for the first instance to prepare the specimen of Ti-TWBs. The thickness combinations of 0.7mm/1.0mm and in widths of 20mm, 90mm and 110mm were used. A specific tooling system with temperature control device was developed to the forming of Ti-TWBs at 550°C. A cylindrical punch of 50mm diameter was designed and manufactured. Different forming parameters (i.e. traveling distance of the punch and the stroke as well as the time of each forming process) and material characteristics under various temperatures were measured. In addition, the true stress and strain values by tensile test as well as the major and minor strain distributions of forming Ti-TWBs at elevated temperatures by Swift Forming test were carried out and applied as input into the finite element program. The simulation results indentify failure locations and Limit Dome Height (LDH) of Ti-TWBs at elevated temperatures and were compared with the measured ones. Finally, the optimum forming conditions of Ti-TWBs were determined based on the experimentally verified simulation results.