This study investigated the plastic deformation behavior of 304 stainless steel thin-walled tubes under axial compression by means of numerical calculation and theoretical analysis. It was found that the plastic deformation length of thin-walled tube determined the formability of folds and the work done in the whole axial compression process. To reveal the relation between the range of plastic deformation length and tube geometry parameters, regression equations were established using the quadratic regression orthogonal design method. Experiments were conducted to validate the equations. The process windows for forming a single fold and tube joining at ends had been printed ultimately. The results showed that the regression equations can accurately predict the range of plastic deformation length for forming a single fold. Through the parameter analysis of regression equation, it was turned out that the tube thickness and radius had a significant impact on the plastic deformation length. The tube thickness had a positive linear relation with the minimum plastic deformation length required to form a single fold while the tube radius had a negative linear relation. As for the maximum plastic deformation length, the relations were nonlinear. All of these were referred for establishing the successful end-to-end joining of thin-walled tubes.
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