Hydroforming of nimonic 80 A sheet: a novel optimization based numerical simulation

Hydroforming is utilised for producing components which are challenging in the field of metal forming. Nimonic alloy sheet has excellent performance under extreme temperatures and pressures, rendering it suitable for a wide range of applications in aerospace, processing, and industrial sectors, including liquefied gas storage, turbine blades, and fasteners. This study presents a finite element analysis model that aims to optimise process parameters, including pressure, blank holder force, and thickness, in order to obtain maximum deformation without failure during the hydroforming of nimonic 80 A sheet. Tensile testing is used to determine the mechanical properties of Nimonic 80 A sheet in compliance with ASTM E8/E8M standard. The sheet hydroforming process is initially simulated using finite element analysis, and then, the simulation is verified by comparing it with experimental data to determine the maximum pressure at which material failure occurs. As fully experimental is time consuming and expensive, Numeric simulation was carried out for the list of experiments created by Box Behnken design. Cuckoo search and particle swarm optimization techniques are utilised for predicting the optimal process parameters for maximum deformation. The optimized solution is validated by finite element analysis simulation. Formability is measured by the forming limit diagram and maximum deformation can be achieved without cracking or wrinkling for the optimized process parameters. The cuckoo search algorithm predicts an optimal solution with variations from the finite element analysis simulation of less than 5%, indicating the high resilience of the best solution.