Volume of Solid (VOS) and surface tracking method for metal forming applications

The adaptation of the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method to solid mechanics (VOS) is presented with the focus on metal forming applications. The method is discussed for a general non-uniform mesh with Eulerian FE formulation. The discussion in this paper focuses on the modeling of the contact between the tool and the workpiece, and the connectivity of the free surface during the whole process. Improvement on the connectivity of the free surface and the representation of curves is achieved by considering the mechanics of these processes. Three applications are discussed and used to highlight different aspects of the VOS method.