EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH AND FINITE-ELEMENT SIMULATION OF PLATES HYDROBULGING IN PAIRS

In this paper, the new hydrobulging technology is described for manufa cturing giant ellipsoidal tank heads which could only be made through press and welding before. First, the head is divided into skirt and ce nter parts; the skirt part is formed through traditional technology, w hile the center part is formed through hydrobulging. Then these two pa rts are welded together and if the shape and dimensions of the center part after hydrobulging are those of the required ellipsoidal head, th en a whole ellipsoidal head is produced. The experiment was performed by hydrobulging plates in pairs under different boundary conditions to form the centre part of an ellipsoidal head. The deformations of the experimental work were measured and calculated and were compared with those of a standard ellipsoidal curvature which were nearest to the ex perimental curvatures. Finally numerical simulation of the hydrobulgin g plates in pairs under stiff boundary conditions was done using FEM. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.