Experimental Study and Simulation of Tube Hydroforming Process of Bi-layered Aluminum-Copper with Axial Feeding

Aluminum alloys, due to their light weight and resistant against corrosion, play a significant role in aviation and automobile industries. Hydroforming process can be used for the formation process of Aluminum alloys. In some applications such as in transferring very high temperature corrosive fluids use of multilayered pipes are recommended. This paper is divided in to two parts: in the first part, formation process of a two layered isotrope Aluminum-Copper pipe is simulated using a 3D finite element method. In the second part, to validate the simulation results, an experimental machine of hydroforming pipe with the capability of controlling the internal pressure and axial feeding is designed and built. Linear loading curve was selected as the best loading curve for the formation process based on a comparison between three different types of loading curves (linear, step-wise, and spline). Also, comparison between thickness distribution of hydroforming of single layer and two layered pipes showed that two-layered pipe has more homogenous distribution. According to the results, wrinkles created befor bulging the pipe playes the role of axial feeding very well and the pipes have better thickness distribution.Experimental results verified simulation outcome that can be used to predict loading curves with a reasonable tolerance.