Modelling drawbeads with finite elements and verification

Drawbeads are commonly used in deep drawing processes to control the flow of the blank during the forming operation. In finite element simulations of deep drawing the drawbead geometries are seldom included because of the small radii; because of these small radii a very large number of elements is required in 3-D simulations. To cope with this problem, a 2-D analysis of the drawbead has been performed and the calculated restraining force will be applied in the near future in 3-D simulations with an equivalent drawbead element. Modelling drawbeads by only applying an additional restraining force is not satisfactory. During the flow of the material through a drawbead, the strain distribution changes and the material usually becomes thinner. These effects must be incorporated in the equivalent drawbead element. For the modelling of the drawbead a 2-D plane strain finite element model was developed. Several simulations were carried out to investigate the behaviour of the drawbead. Various geometries were investigated, the friction coefficient was varied and also the frictionless case was taken into account. To verify the model an experimental set-up was built. An extensive set of drawbead geometries was used. The results are compared with the finite element calculations and the similarity is very satisfactory.