FEM Modeling and Validation of the Temperature Field in the Plasma Arc Bending of Laminated Clad Metal Sheets

Plasma arc bending of laminated clad metal sheets (LCMS) is a newly developed technique that produces deformation in the LCMS by thermal stress instead of external mechanical force. Since the temperature field leads to the thermal stress, a FEM mode was developed to study the temperature variations in the plasma arc bending of the LCMS which was validated robustness by the experiments. The results show that the temperature variations of the LCMS include the preheating, temperature dramatically changing and cooling stages. The lowest temperature is in the inlet whereas the highest temperature is in the outlet along the heating line. It needs to regulate the energy input of the plasma arc to avoid the possible partial melting of the LCMS.