An analysis of axisymmetric hydrostatic bulging by the upper-bound method (Q1094909)

An upper-bound solution for the analysis of hydrostatic bulging is found by minimizing the plastic energy consumption rate divided by the fluid volume change rate. The corresponding upper-bound pressure is found through optimization with respect to some parameters given in the assumed velocity field. Computations are carried out for axisymmetric hydrostatic bulging of isotropic work-hardening sheet metal. The computed results are then compared with those by the finite-element method and by the finite- difference method as well as the reported experimental results. The comparison shows that the present method renders excellent predictions in presure and strain distributions with much reduced computational time, which are still in close agreement with those obtained by the numerical methods.