Abstract:The bulk metal forming processes were simulated by using a one-step finite element (FE) approach based on deformation theory of plasticity, which enables rapid prediction of final workpiece configurations and stress/strain distributions. This approach was implemented to minimize the approximated plastic potential energy derived from the total plastic work and the equivalent external work in static equilibrium, for incompressibly rigid-plastic materials, by FE calculation based on the extremum work principle. The one-step forward simulations of compression and rolling processes were presented as examples, and the results were compared with those obtained by classical incremental FE simulation to verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed method.

Key words: bulk metal forming; plastic deformation theory; finite element method; one-step forward simulation; rigid-plastic materials