Thickness distribution of hydroforming Y-shape branch

To find out the thickness distribution of a hydroformed Y-shaped branch and the influence of calibration pressure on it, an investigation has been conducted for hydroforming Y-shaped branch tubes through numerical simulation and experiments. Thickness distribution of three different forming stages and the thickness of typical location varying with the internal pressure in forming process were analyzed. The results showed that after forming, the left fillet transition region was the thickest, the right took the second place, the top of the protrusion was the thinnest. The influence of different calibration pressures on the thickness distribution was studied through numerical simulation. The simulation results indicate that with the increase of calibration pressure, the highest thickening rate does not change obviously, while the highest thinning rate increases apparently.