SURFACE MODELING AND MESH GENERATION FOR SIMULATING SUPERPLASTIC FORMING

This paper presents an approach which enables surface modelling, mesh generation and the Finite Element (FE) analysis to be integrated toget her to simulate superplastic forming processes for complex shaped comp onents. Techniques have been developed to generate an FE mesh over non -four-sided surface areas, the boundaries of which are Bezier curves o f arbitrary degree m, using a consistent expression. Theoretical evide nce is given to determine the number of Bezier triangular patches requ ired for accurately re-constructing die surfaces within a commercial F E solver. The techniques developed have been successfully used in dete rmining the process parameters for forming a 3D rectangular box. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.