Effect of Draw Bead Profile and Location in Sheet Metal Drawing Process-Finite Element Analysis and Experimental Validation

Drawbeads are often applied in the deep drawing process to improve control of the material flow during the forming operation. Drawbeads restrain the sheet from flowing freely into die cavity. This paper deals with analysis of effect of draw bead geometry in sheet metal drawing process. Finite element analysis of drawing of circular blanks into axi-symmetric hemispherical cup is done. Circular and rectangular drawbeads are introduced into the finite element models and their influence in distribution of strain and thickness are investigated. DYNAFORM and LS-DYNA, a commercially available explicit FEA code were used to model and analyze the forming process respectively. These outcomes are compared with experimental results. The results show good agreement between numerical method and experiment. On comparison, rectangular drawbeads restrain the material more than circular drawbead due to their geometry.