Numerical and experimental investigation on flower pattern design methods in cold roll forming process of a high strength steel pipe

In this paper, cold roll forming process of a high strength steel pipe using four types of flower pattern including circular, edge, double radius and reverse bending is simulated with finite element method in MSC Marc Mentat software. Due to importance of quality of final pipe and in order to achieve the desired geometry in high strength steel pipes, selecting the appropriate flower pattern to design the pipe roll forming production line is considered. Using finite element simulation results, deformation of sheet in this process is studied and effect of flower pattern type on geometry of final product, which includes curvature distribution, spring back and thickness distribution of pipe, is investigated. Results show that implementing reverse bending flower pattern, leads to reduction in deviation from mean curvature at edge of the sheet up to about 65 percent. Thickness distribution analysis shows that circular and edge flower patterns cause upsetting and thinning of edge of the sheet up to 0.2 millimeters, respectively. But, use of double radius and reverse bending patterns cause average thickness of edge to be well adjusted to reach 2.8 millimeters. Also, circular flower pattern has the lowest value of spring back in terms of variation of mean relative curvature of 0.69 percent and edge deviation of 0.15 millimeters. To validate the finite element simulation, experimental tests were designed and conducted using one forming stand. By comparing resultant data of experimental tests with simulation results, validity of finite element simulation confirmed.