Modeling and Simulation of Mecano-Welding Process for Cylinders

Pyramidal three-roll bending is widely used in manufacture due to its simple configuration and advantage for thick plate roll bending. However, there remain two planar zones near the front and rear ends of the bent shape. A mecano-welding process which provides improved circularity of the bent shape is proposed in this paper. This process includes three sub-processes: the first sub-process is the roll bending from a plate with cylindrical rolls; the second sub-process is the gas metal arc-welding process used to join the gap of the bent tubular section; the third sub-process is the rerun roll bending of the welded shape. Results of the numerical simulation of the first two sub-processes under the well-known ANSYS and ANSYS/LS-DYNA environment are reported. The bent shape after the first roll bending, the distributions of the temperature and residual stress after the welding are illustrated and discussed.