Analytical study for tube hydroforming

Recently, the tube hydroforming technology has been widely used in manufacturing the high-rigidity structural components in automotive industry. However, many failures like wrinkling, buckling, folding back, and bursting are frequently experienced during the tube hydroforming process under improper forming conditions. In this paper the analytical models are used to determine the forming limits for tube hydroforming process and demonstrate how the loading path and material parameters of the strain hardening exponent (n-value) and anisotropic parameter (R-value) influence the forming results. The theoretical forming limits for wrinkling and bursting occurrence are then compared with Back’s experimental works.