Studies on Spring Back Effect of TIG Welded Ti-6Al-4V Sheets

The investigation presented streamlines its framework towards understanding the implications of spring back effect of Ti-6Al-4V alloy (Grade 5) sheet metals through experimental and numerical procedures. Base metal and automated TIG welded samples each of 2 mm thickness are subjected to three-point bend test on a Universal Testing Machine. Research reports are immense and provide an analytical insight into forecasting of the spring back effect in sheet metal. Yet, it raises several complexities while also excluding few critical contributories that have prominent repercussion posing disparity among literatures. These contradicting reports raise pointers thereby creating ambiguity and lack of understanding. Such shortcomings are addressed through this work undertaken with an aim to develop a finite element model on ABQUAS/CAE platform to estimate the spring back effect on base and welded samples, respectively. The results accomplished through the numerical model show good agreement with the experimentally recorded values. The outcome of the study demonstrates that punch stroke and thickness of the sheet metal are the key components dictating the degree of spring back effect in forming process. Sheet metal thickness shows disproportional variation with spring back effect, whereas contradictory observation is recorded for punch stroke variations.