COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF THERMOPLASTIC BEHAVIOR OF INCONEL 718 IN APPLICATION TO LASER-ASSISTED BENDING OF THIN-WALLED TUBES

摘要

Laser-assisted tube bending is a promising manufacturing process which enables production of forms and shapes that cannot be obtained by purely mechanical bending. It is particularly suitable for high hardness and brittle materials, such as nickel alloys, ceramics and cast iron.In the current paper, mechanical loading and simultaneous heating by a moving laser beam are used in a controlled manner to obtain the required deformation. Experimental investigation of the Inconel 718 (IN718) alloy provides the basis for identification of parameters of two constitutive models, which encompass softening phenomena and the coupling of temperature and strains.Numerical simulations are conducted to provide more insight into the laser-assisted bending process of the IN718 thin-walled tubes. Temperature, stress and deformation fields are determined in sequentially coupled thermomechanical analyses using the FE code ABAQUS. Laser beam is modeled as a surface heat flux using the dedicated DFLUX procedure. The temperature field is used as a thermal load in the static general step, together with an external mechanical load. The process of tube bending is controlled by the displacement of the piston rod of the actuator, while the thrust force is the resulting value.