Finite Elements Modelling of Forming Processes a State of the Art Review

Traditionally metal forming processes have attracted
attention of investigators interested in developing
analytical models of metal working processes. Upper bound
and lower bound techniques are the results of such efforts.
However, the shortcomings of these techniques such as the
capability to get limited information (i.e. approximate
determination of load and power only) and application to
generally axi-symmetric cases alone remained major limi-tations. This remained the only analytical method avai-lable to the users of metal forming processes till late
sixties and early seventies [1]. The situation started
changing in early seventies when use of numerical tech-niques became common even for complex problems because of the availability of high speed computers. A very strong
numerical technque, finite elements method, came into
prominence and attempts were made to use it to solve the
traditional metal forming problems of forward and backward
extrusion [2,3,4].