Characterization of mechanical properties for tubular materials based on hydraulic bulge test under axial feeding force

A T-shape tube hydraulic bulge test under axial feeding force is carried out to characterize the mechanical properties of EN AW 5049-O and 6060-O aluminium alloys. The punch displacement, T-branch height and axial compressive force are recorded online during the experiment. An intelligent inverse identification framework combining the finite element method and numerical optimization algorithm is developed to determine material parameters by fitting simulated results to the experimental data iteratively. The identified constitutive parameters using the inverse modelling technique are compared with those determined by the theoretical analysis and uniaxial tensile test. The comparison shows that the predicted bulge height and punch force based on the material parameters obtained by the three methods are different and the inverse strategy produces the smallest gap between numerical and experimental values. It is possible to conclude that the hydraulic bulge test can be applied to characterize the stress-strain curve of tubular materials at the large strain scope, and the automatic inverse framework is a more accurate post-processing procedure to identify material constitutive parameters compared with the classical analytical model.