Cost saving and product improvement have always been important goals in the metaludforming industry. To achieve these goals, metal forming processes need to be optimised. Duringudthe last decades, simulation software based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) has significantlyudcontributed to designing feasible processes more easily. More recently, the possibility ofudcoupling FEM to mathematical optimisation algorithms is offering a very promising opportunityudto design optimal metal forming processes instead of only feasible ones. However, whichudoptimisation algorithm to use is still not clear.udIn this paper, an optimisation algorithm based on metamodelling techniques is proposedudfor optimising metal forming processes. The algorithm incorporates nonlinear FEM simulationsudwhich can be very time consuming to execute. As an illustration of its capabilities, theudproposed algorithm is applied to optimise the internal pressure and axial feeding load pathsudof a hydroforming process. The product formed by the optimised process outperforms productsudproduced by other, arbitrarily selected load paths. These results indicate the high potential ofudthe proposed algorithm for optimising metal forming processes using time consuming FEMudsimulations.
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