Springback analysis for warm bending of titanium tube based on coupled thermal-mechanical simulation

Titanium bent tubular parts attract extensive applications, thus meeting the ever-growing demands for light weight, high reliability, and long service life, etc. To improve bending limit and forming quality, local-heat-assisted bending has been developed. However, significant springback seriously reduces the dimensional accuracy of the bent tubular parts even under elevated forming temperatures, and coupled thermal-mechanical working conditions make springback behavior more complex and difficult to control in warm bending of titanium tubular materials. In this paper, using warm bending of thin-walled commercial pure titanium tube as a case, a coupled thermal-mechanical finite element model of through-process heating-bending-unloading is constructed and verified, for predicting the springback behavior in warm bending. Based on the model, the time-dependent evolutions of springback angle and residual stress distribution during thermal-mechanical unloading are studied. In addition, the influences of forming temperature and bending angle on springback angle, thickness variation, and cross-section flattening of bent tubes are clarified. This research provides a fundamental understanding of the thermal-mechanical-affected springback behavior upon local-heat-assisted bending for improving the forming accuracy of titanium bent tubular parts and structures.