RESEARCH ON THE INTEGRAL HYDROBULGE FORMING OF ELLIPSOIDAL SHELLS

Although spherical vessels have sucessfully been made using hydrobulgi ng technology. There are some problems occurring during the hydrobulgi ng of ellipsoidal shells because in the latter case the structure is n ot centro-symmetrical as with spherical shells. In the present paper, the integral hydrobulge forming of ellipsoidal shells is described, it s theoretical analysis, deformation tendency and experimental results being introduced. It is shown that ellipsoidal shells of which the axi al length ratio m is less than root 2 can be formed easily and that el lipsoidal shells of which m is greater than root 2 can be also formed by adopting some technical measures. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.