An simulation technology of sheet-metal forming with trial-and-error contact algorithm

In this paper, an implicit simulation code which can simulate a general three-dimensional sheet-metal forming is presented. An 8-node degenerated shell element is employed to approximate the continuous updated Lagrangian formulation of the global mechanical problem. Emphasis is put on expressing the contact conditions and taking into account the geometrical non-linearity. The characteristics of the authors’ contact algorithm is that the contact conditions just act as the boundary conditions of the FEM equations and need not be introduced into the stiffness matrix. Finally, two numerical examples demonstrating the effectiveness of the present approach are given.