Predictive simulation of plastic processing of welded stainless steel pipes

Metal forming is the most used technique to manufacture complex geometry pieces in the most efficient way, and the technological progress related to the various application fields requires increasingly higher quality standards. In order to achieve such a requirement, people are forced to perform quality and compliance tests finalized to guarantee that these standards are met; this often implies a waste of material and economic resources. In the case of welded stainless steel pipes, several critical points affecting the general trend of subsequent machining need to be taken into account. In this framework, the aim of the paper is to study the effects of different process parameters and geometrical characteristics on various members of the stainless steel family during finite elements method (FEM) simulations. The analysis of the simulation outputs, such as stress, strain, and thickness, is reported through mappings, in order to evaluate their variation, caused by the variation of the simulation input parameters. The feasibility of the simulated process is evaluated through the use of forming limit diagrams (FLD). An experimental validation of the model is performed by comparison with real cases. Major parameters that mainly guide the outcome of the simulations are highlighted.