Experimental and Numerical Study of Double Y-Shaped Hydroforming Using Analysis of Variance Method

Due to the increasing use of tubular components in various industries such as automotive and military industries, tube hydroforming process has been widely welcomed due to its advantages over traditional methods. The Y-shaped product is an asymmetric part that requires expensive asymmetric axial feed control equipment for its production. In this paper, by designing the tube in symmetric pairs and applying the same axial force on two sides of the tube, the hydroforming process of the double of Y-shaped is improved. Then, the process is three-dimensionally simulated using the Abaqus software by finite element method and the conditions for the improvement of the shape were investigated. In order to validate the modeling, the experimental product and the simulation model were compared, which showed a good agreement. Using the design of experiment method, the effects of tube length, the distance between the two bulges, internal pressure and axial feeding are investigated on the height of the bulge and the thinning percentage..