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Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2693–2699 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICMPC-2019

Finite element analysis of spring back in Ti-6Al-4V alloy

MA Waheda*, VSR Gadia, AK Guptaa, Supradeepan Ka, SK Singhb, NR Kotkundea
a
Mechncial Engineering Department, BITS-Pilani Hyderabad Campus Hyderabad, Jawahar Nagar, Hyderabad-500078, Telangana, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, GRIET, Hyderabad, India-500072, Telangana, India

Abstract
Spring-back is one of the key factor that effects the shape of a sheet metal component to maintain its geometry. Finite Element
(FE) analysis has been widely used in sheet metal manufacturing industries to avoid tedious experimental trials. However, spring-
back differs significantly based on different process parameters that are used in sheet metal forming processes. In this work,
essential process parameters such as temperature, holding time and punch speed are considered in order to study the effect of
spring back in a V bending process on Ti-6Al-4V alloy. FE simulations have been carried out using ABAQUS/CAE software.
The input material properties for performing FE simulations has been taken from the conducted uniaxial tensile tests. For
validation of FE simulations, V bending experiments have also been conducted at room temperature and 700℃. The results
reveal that the temperature has a major influence in reducing the spring back effect. Therefore, high temperature and punch speed
would be an excellent combination for reducing spring back in a V bending process on Ti-6Al-4V alloy.

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the 9th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization, ICMPC-2019

Keywords: Ti-6Al-4V alloy, Spring back, Finite element simulations

1. Introduction
Ti-6Al-4V alloy is one of the major contributor of the titanium industry [1]. Ti-6Al-4V alloy has excellent
properties such as high strength and melting temperature, low weight, good corrosion and erosion resistance. Ti-
6Al-4V alloy has different fields of applications like aerospace, automotive and medical industries [2]. In sheet
metal bending process, spring back plays a very crucial role. In this process, maintaining the dimensional precision
is a major problem, due to the amount of elastic recovery taking place during unloading and specifically in titanium
alloys spring back angle is high that can vary from 5º to 10º [3].

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected]

2214-7853 © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the 9th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization, ICMPC-2019
2694 M.A. Wahed et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2693–2699

Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of spring back and compensate the amount of spring back occurring
in various sheet metal bending processes.From past few years, researchers have focused at finite element analysis
and high temperature study of spring-back such as Muhammad et al. [4] conducted a survey on the developments in
sheet metal forming and finite element methods. The authors presented a comprehensive review based on their area
of interest. Guo et al. [5] investigated the influence of different parameters on spring back in a hot stretch bending
process of Ti-6Al-4V alloy based on optimization method and compared the results with finite element simulation.
Nie et al. [6] studied the electrically assisted hot V bending behavior of CP-Ti sheet by using both experimental and
finite element methods. Ozturk et al. [7] studied the effect of elevated temperature on spring back behavior in a CP-
2 titanium alloy, with the main purpose to get optimum conditions with defect free spring back. Zong et al. [8]
studied the behavior of spring back in a V bending process using Ti-6Al-4V alloy by varying different parameters
like temperature, punch radius etc. and also validated experimental spring back behavior with finite element method.
Badr et al. [9] applied a constitutive model to investigate the spring back behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy in bending
and roll forming processes. De-hua et al. [10] used an optimization method for forming of titanium alloy in order to
define process parameters and to decrease the spring back effect. Additionally, finite element method has been
applied to validate the forming process.
There are several process parameters with different levels that may affect the spring back behavior in a V
bending process. Even though less efforts have been made in order to study the spring back behavior by finite
element analysis, but the effect of major parameters and their reliance has not been carried out properly. In this
study, Finite element simulations has been performed by using parameters such as temperature, punch speed and
holding time for predicting spring back effect in V bending process. The commercially available software
ABAQUS/CAE 6.14-1 has been used for finite element analysis of V bending process. The necessary material
properties for carrying out finite element simulations has been taken from the performed uniaxial tensile tests. To
validate with finite element simulations, V bending experiments were also conducted.

2. Material and Experimental Details

The chemical composition of as-received Ti-6Al-4V alloy sheet of 0.8 mm thickness is given in Table 1. V
bending tests were performed on a computerized compression testing machine (CTM) with a maximum load
capacity of 2000 KN. The CTM was fitted with V bending punch, die and a heating furnace of 1000℃ capacity for
conducting high temperature tests as shown in Figure 1.

Table 1. Chemical composition of as received Ti-6Al-4V alloy sheet (% wt.)

A T
Element V C O
l Fe i
Composit 5 4 0 0 0 B
ion .98 .07 .22 .02 .12 al.

Table 2. Details of V bending parameters for FE simulations and experiments

Parameters Values

Temperature RT, 700℃

Hold time 10 min
Punch speed 0.1 mm/sec
Bending angle 60º
Punch and die radius 3 mm
2696 M.A. Wahed et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2693–2699

Table 3. Material properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy

Temperature Young’s modulus Yield strength Ultimate strength Hardening co-efficient

(°C) (GPa) (MPa) (MPa) (K) (MPa)

Room Temp. 114 986 1001 1495

700 40 347 349 426

3. Finite Element Analysis

The commercial analytical code for implicit/standard finite element method in ABAQUS 6.14 have been used for
simulating the spring-back behavior. The problem has been simplified by considering only sheet blank as
deformable. Whereas, the other two parts including punch and die were considered to be rigid and were modelled in
2D using a plain strain approach as shown in Figure 3. Material properties obtained from the tensile tests (Table 3)
and true stress vs. true plastic strain data have been assigned to the sheet blank.

Punch

Blank

Die

Fig. 3. FEA model of different parts in V-bending process

In the finite element simulations, the CPE4R shell elements were used for meshing sheet blank, punch and die.
The quadrangle 4 node shell has been widely used in various sheet metal bending finite element simulations.
Usually, this element is used in problems with large deformation [4, 5]. In the simulations, the punch and die fillet
radius has been modelled as 3 mm and the bend angle as 60º. Whereas, in the interaction properties the coefficient of
friction value is considered as 0.1 for all the contacts. The bending simulations were performed in three steps. In the
first step the punch moves down with a specific velocity and deforms the sheet blank, until it completely comes into
contact with the die. In the second step the holding time is applied, where all the three components are in contact
with each other for a particular period of time. Finally, in the third step the punch moves upward as a result the
spring back takes place. Spring back measurement has been obtained by selecting two nodes on the sheet blank.
Coordinates of nodes at both the steps, loading and unloading were noted. Finally, the angle of a slope formulae is
used in calculating spring back as shown in Eq. (1).
 M.A. Wahed et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2693–2699 2697

 y2  y1 
  tan 1   (1)
 x2  x1 

where 1 and 2 represent coordinates of nodes at x and y.

4. Results and Discussion

The finite element simulations that were performed at room temperature gives a spring back of 16º as shown in
Figure 4 (a), with Von Mises stresses and punch unloading in enlarged view. Whereas, from the finite element
simulation performed at 700℃ as shown in Figure 5 (a) depicts undeformed punch and sheet blank, Figure 5 (b)
half loaded punch and blank, Figure 5 (c) holding and Figure 5(d) unloading of punch after deformation. The FE
simulation result at 700℃ showed the spring back as 08º as shown in enlarged view in Figure 4 (b), the reduction in
spring back at both these temperatures is due to reduced elastic recovery that has been observed from the decrease in
Von Mises stresses. The experimental procedure for measurement of spring back angle using a Bevel Protractor is
shown in Figure 6. It can be observed from the experimental results that spring back of Ti-6Al-4V alloy at room
temperature is 13º as shown in Figure 7 (a), it is due to high yield strength and less young’s modulus, also reported
by Adamus and Lacki [3]. From Figure 7 (b), it can be inferred that experiments conducted at 700℃ shows spring
back decreases to 02º in comparison with room temperature, this is due to the temperature effect for reduction in the
yield strength as well as in the elastic modulus and this can be observed from Table 2, similarly found by Nie,
Ozturk and Zong et al. [6 - 8]. The difference in the spring back angle between both the methods is because of the
load i.e., in experimental method load acts at the end of loading condition to obtain a proper shape. Whereas, in the
finite element analysis punch displaces with the blank till it contacts the die and unloading takes place. The
complete results of spring back from finite element simulations and experiments are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Results of spring back from FE simulations and experiments

Temperature FEM bending angle Spring back (FEM) Exp. Bending angle Spring back (Exp.)
(℃) (º) (º) (º) (º)

RT 76 16 73 13
700 68 08 62 02

(a)
2698 M.A. Wahed et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2693–2699

(b)

Fig. 4. Enlarged view of punch unloading from FE analysis (a) RT and (b) 700

Fig. 5. Finite element analysis at 700℃ (a) Undeformed punch, (b) Half deformed punch
and blank and (c) Punch moving upwards after deformation

Fig. 6. Spring back measurement using Bevel Protractor

 M.A. Wahed et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2693–2699 2699

0
73
62º
0

(a) (b)

Fig. 7. Experiementally measured bending angles (a) RT and (b) 700℃

5. Conclusions

This paper focuses on the finite element simulation of spring back in Ti-6Al-4V alloy using V-bending process.
The FE analysis and the experiments have been performed at room temperature and 700℃. FE results at room
temperature gives the spring back as 16º, due to more elastic recovery; whereas, at 700℃ it gives 08º due to less
elastic recovery and this reduction in spring back effect at both the temperatures has been observed, due to reduction
in Von Mises stresses during unloading of the punch. From experimental results performed at room temperature, the
spring back value is found to be 13º, due to high yield strength and low Young’s modulus. While at 700℃, the yield
strength and Young’s modulus decreases as the temperature increases, due to this the spring back also decreases to
02º. Thus, temperature has a significant effect in reducing the spring back value as well as the load requirements for
achieving the bending process.
Future work involves studying the effect of punch speed and holding time on spring back value in FE simulations
and its validation with the experimental study.

6. References

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[4] Muhammad Ali Ablatl, Ala Qattawi, Numerical simulation of sheet metal forming: a review, Int. J Adv. Manuf. Tech. 89 (2016) 1235-1250.
[5] Guiqiang Guo, Dongsheng Li, Xiaoqiang Li, Tongsheng Deng, Shuo Wang, Finite element simulation and process optimization for hot
stretch bending of Ti-6Al-4V thin-walled extrusion, Int. J Adv. Manuf. Tech. 92 (2017) 1707-1719.
[6] Daming Nie, Zhen Lu, Kaifeng Zhang, Hot V-bending behavior of pre-deformed pure titanium sheet assisted by electrical heating, Int. J Adv.
Manuf. Tech. 94 (2018) 163-174.
[7] Fahrettin Ozturk, Remzi Ecmel Ece, Naki Polat, Arif Koksal, Effect of Warm Temperature on Spring back Compensation of Titanium Sheet,
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