Towards standard benchmarks and reference data for validation and improvement of numerical simulation in sheet metal forming

The last decade has witnessed many advances and a lot of improvement in FE codes for simulation of sheet metal forming processes. Such advances could be followed mainly by benchmarks proposed in Numisheet conferences. It was possible to notice that the scatter of results among numerical codes has decreased so significantly that recently scattering of experimental results among different corporations was evident. However in order to pursue further developments and validate numerical results it is fundamental to have reliable reference experimental data. This is one of the objectives of a current IMS project called 3DS-Digital Die Design System. In this paper such objectives are presented as well as some of the proposed benchmarks. It is intended to show part of the developed work concerning tool design and manufacturing methodology. Also an experimental case study about the use of piercing holes in parts and the use of counter-punch is presented. Finally some simulation results are also shown concerning one of the proposed benchmarks.