Inner flange and side wrinkling often occur in rotary-draw bending process of rectangular aluminum alloy wave-guide tubes, and the distribution and magnitude of wrinkling is related to geometrical parameters of the tubes. In order to study the effects of geometrical parameters on wrinkling of rectangular wave-guide tubes, a 3D-FE model for rotary-draw bending processes of thin-walled rectangular aluminum alloy wave-guide tubes was built based on the platform of ABA-QUS/Explicit, and its reliability was validated by experiments. Simulation and analysis of the influence laws of geometrical parameters on the wave heights of inner flange and side wrinkling were then carried out. The results show that inner flange wrinkling is the main wrinkling way to rectan- gular wave-guide tubes in rotary-draw bending processes, but side wrinkling cannot be neglected because side wrinkling is 2/3 of inner flange wrinkling when b and h are smaller. Inner flange and side wrinkling increase with increasing b and h; the influence of b on side wrinkling is larger than that of h, while both b and h affect inner flange wrinkling greatly. Inner flange and side wrinkling decrease with increasing R/h; the influence of h on inner flange and side wrinkling is larger than that of R.
The cross-sectional distortion usually appears during rotary-draw bending process of thin-walled rectangular tube with small bending radius.To study the cross-sectional distortion of the tube,a three-dimensional finite-element model of the process was developed based on ABAQUS/Explicit code and its reliability was validated by experiment.Then,the cross-sectional distortion behaviors of the tube were investigated.The results show that a zone of larger circumferential stress appears on the tube when bending angle reaches 30°.And in the larger circumferential stress zone,the sagging phenomenon is produced obviously.The maximum cross-sectional distortion is located in the larger circumferential stress zone and the angle between the plane of maximum cross-sectional distortion and the bending reference plane is about 50°.The position of the maximum cross-sectional distortion keeps almost unchanged with the variation of the clearances between dies and tube.
