Collapse pressure and strength analysis of hydroformed circular plates

Hydroforming processing of sheet metal parts provides a number of advantages over conventional processes including reduction in the number of parts, and reduction in the tooling and material costs. As a result, the technology has drawn increasing attention from many industries. However, there is still little experience available of both the process and its associated stresses and deformation that limit the application of the technique .The current study has been initiated to gain a better understanding of the fundamentals of hydroforming process and the limitations on its applicability. The study outlines the stress and deformation distributions when a circular plate is processed by a hydrostatic transverse pressure that causes the plate to deform in the axial direction. The collapse load that leads to excessive and uncontrollable deformations is also determined and a forming limit is established.