Numerical and Experimental Research on Warm Tension-Rotation Bending of Extruded AZ31 Profile
Magnesium alloy profiles have attracted more and more attention in automobile and aerospace industries. The rotary draw bending process is suitable to form profiles. A bending test machine is developed to conduct AZ31 profile bending experiment. A 3D elastic-plastic thermo-mechanical coupled finite element model is established and validated by experiment. The effects of process parameters on the geometric dimension of the profile were analyzed by using experimental and numerical methods. The results indicate that the pretension amount is the main parameter which influences the geometric dimension of the bent profile, then the forming temperature, following the bending angle. The dimensional variation of the middle-rib is relatively little, and the dimensional variations of the inside and the outside of the bent profile are large.