V-shaped bending of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy sheet with elliptical hole

The internal elliptical hole defect in the Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy sheet strongly affects the material mechanical properties during the bending process. In this study, the finite element method (FEM) is used to study the effect of internal hole on mechanical properties of the sheet subjected to the V-shaped bending. The fracture damage, the equivalent strain and the principal stress in the sheet with elliptical hole (the defect sheet) and the hole-free sheet (the perfect sheet) are analyzed contrastively under different punch speeds and radii. The results show that the load in the defect sheet and the perfect sheet has different trends during the bending process. Compared to the perfect sheet, both the damage and the equivalent strain in the defect sheet obviously increase, and the distribution of the principal stress in the bending zone of the defect sheet has a significant change. The hole causes the different evolution of the maximum damage, the equivalent strain, and the maximum tensile and compressive stresses with the increase of punch speed and radius for the defect and perfect sheets. The current results serve a feasible approach to predicting the fracture of the sheet with internal hole during the V-shaped bending process, and provide a guidance for the V-bending experiments of the defect and perfect sheets in the subsequent work. (paper)