Title: An analysis of forces during three roller bending process

Authors: Shakil A. Kagzi; Harit K. Raval

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat – 395007, Gujarat, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat – 395007, Gujarat, India

Abstract: Drums, pressure vessels, windmill towers are manufactured from cylindrical or conical shells. These cylindrical or conical shells are generally formed by bending sheet of required thickness in three roller bending machine, and then welding their edges to form a complete shell. During bending, the forces exerted on the rollers of the machine must not exceed the bending capacity of the machine. It is also desirable that the bending should be done to an extent to utilise the maximum bending capacity. Thus, it is necessary to estimate the forces during bending, so as to maximise the utilisation of bender capacity, without overloading it, to obtain the desired curvature. Analytical models are available for prediction of bending forces with assumptions of constant bend radius. In fact, the radius continuously changes during bending operation which affects the magnitude and the direction of the forces exerted on the rollers. An attempt is made to overcome this assumption using finite element analysis (FEA). Variation in curvature of plate during bending and forces for various bending configuration such as thickness of plate and roller inclinations have been studied using FEA.

Keywords: roller bending; conical shells; cylindrical shells; ABAQUS; RSM; response surface methodology; finite element analysis; FEA; bending forces; bending capacity; plate curvature; plate thickness; roller inclination.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2015.072245

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2015 Vol.51 No.3, pp.248 - 263

Received: 01 Aug 2014
Accepted: 12 Feb 2015

Published online: 06 Oct 2015 *

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