Forming limit prediction for two-stage aluminum alloy sheet forming process considering the effect of normal stress

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze theoretically the influence of normal stress on the formability of aluminum alloy sheets in non-linear strain paths. Design/methodology/approach – Four loading modes of non-linear strain paths are investigated in detail to consider the effect of normal stress on formability of aluminum alloy sheets. Findings – Results show that the influence of normal stress in the first stage can be ignored. However, the normal stress in the second stage enhances the formability of aluminum alloy sheets obviously. Besides, the normal stress in the second stage is found to have larger effect on forming limit stress than that in the first stage. Research limitations/implications – Maybe more experiment data should be obtained to support the theoretical findings. Originality/value – This current study provides a better understanding of normal stress effect on the formability of aluminum alloy sheets in non-linear strain paths. Since the reacting stage of normal stress play important roles in normal stress effect on the formability of aluminum alloy sheets, the insight obtained in this paper will help to judge the instability of aluminum alloy sheets in complex forming processes with normal stress reacting on the sheet or tube.

A Numerical Investigation of the Detachment of the Trailing Particle From a Chain Sedimenting in Newtonian and Viscoelastic Fluids

Particles sedimenting in a viscoelastic fluid form chains. It has been observed in experiments that, sometimes, the last particle in the chain gets detached. In this paper, we investigate this phenomenon. It is known that a long chain falls faster than a single particle in fluids. This long body effect tends to detach the last particle from the chain. The wake effect and the normal stress effect are the mechanisms that work against the long body effect. The last particle is not detached if the inertial wake effects are strong enough to cause substantial drag reduction on it. The detachment is also restricted by the elastic normal stress of the viscoelastic fluid. [S0098-2202(00)01003-8]