The objectives of this Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) research project are to a) create a fundamental understanding of the enhanced formability of metals during pulsed tube hydroforming, and b) develop analytical and numerical models of the process that will allow industries such as automotive and aerospace to capitalize on this behavior. Traditionally, loading during tube hydroforming is applied monotonically. Recently, it was demonstrated on actual components that if the loading is applied in a pulsed fashion (frequency ~1 Hz), significant gains in formability can be reaped. The mechanism(s) that lead to such improvements are presently unknown. The first objective of this research is to clarify these mechanisms by investigating different hypotheses experimentally. The materials to be examined are Advanced High Strength Steels and Aluminum alloys. The experimental findings will guide the research team into developing the analytical and numerical tools required by the industrial end-users to implement such technologies.
This advanced hydroforming process and the models developed in this research will benefit society at large by reducing the environmental impact, and by enabling more aggressive product designs of products such as automobiles. Graduate and undergraduate students, including underrepresented groups in engineering, will benefit from the industrial focus of this project and from the integration of the results into the curriculum. The NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) frameworks will be used to attract talented participants to aid with the research tasks. The RET participants will also identify high-school students to be engaged in research over the summer, thus attracting more students to STEM disciplines. Finally, the results of this research will be effectively communicated to industry through workshops conducted with the industrial partners (Alcoa, Ford, U.S. Steel).
