ABSTRACT
The 6061 aluminium alloy is widely used in the aerospace field due to its advantages of high toughness, good forming performance and lack of deformation after forming. However, its manufacturing lacks theoretical guidance. Taking the 6061-T6 aluminium alloy with thickness of 1 mm as the research object, the stress and strain of the machining area established by the mechanical model are first analysed. The influence of the main process parameters, such as tool radius, tool depth ΔZ, half-apex angle α on the sheet thickness distribution and forming quality using Abaqus/explicit, are then analysed. The stress and strain data are obtained by numerical simulation. By comparing the numerical simulation with the theoretical value, it shows that a big tool diameter and a small tool depth make the thickness distribution more uniform, but it is necessary to consider the reasonable choice of processing efficiency. Half-apex angle has a great effect on sheet thickness distribution—the smaller the half-apex angle is, the larger the sheet thickness thins. When the forming angle exceeds the sheet metal forming limit, cracking occurs.
