PROGRESS IN MIXED EULERIAN-LAGRANGIAN FINITE-ELEMENT SIMULATION OF FORMING PROCESSES

A review is given of a mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian finite element method for simulation of forming processes. This method permits incremental adaptation of nodal point locations independently from the actual material displacements. Hence numerical difficulties due to large element distortions, as may occur when the updated Lagrange method is applied, can be avoided. Movement of (free) surfaces can be taken into account by adapting nodal surface points in a way that they remain on the surface. Hardening and other deformation path dependent properties are determined by incremental treatment of convective terms. A local and a weighed global smoothing procedure is introduced in order to avoid numerical instabilities and numerical diffusion. Prediction of contact phenomena such as gap opening and/or closing and sliding with friction is accomplished by a special contact element. The method is demonstrated by simulations of an upsetting process and a wire drawing process.