Residual stress analysis and its effect on springback for multi-step pressbrake bending

Pressbrake bending is a multi-step metal forming process and widely applied in the fields of aerospace, shipbuilding, and offshore industry. However, the bending residual stress that arise from the previous-pass bending step will affect the stress distribution of the next-pass bending step, and finally affect the springback after unloading, which results in the difficulty to guarantee the dimensional accuracy of the forming part. In this study, the residual stresses for multi-pass pressbrake forming and its influence on springback are systematically investigated. First, the analytical model for the residual stress of the bent specimen with initial curvature is deduced based on geometric relationship and elastic–plastic bending theory. Second, the calculation method of rigid body position redefine to simulate the multi-pass bending forming process is developed, and the numerical method is confirmed by comparison with experimental method. The analytical model to predict the residual stress is shown to be in close agreement with results from numerical method, demonstrating the validity of the analytical model. Finally, the impact of residual stress in single-pass and multi-pass bending forming on springback are discussed thoroughly. It is found that, as the number of forming passes increases, the equivalent plastic strain will increase to 9% of three-pass loading from 7.8% of one-pass loading, which explains the reason of increasing the number of bending passes can not only reduce springback, but also reduce the residual effect of bending forming.