Relations between the stress components and cross-sectional distortion of thin-walled rectangular waveguide tube in rotary draw bending process

The significant cross-sectional distortion is one of the major problems in the bending of thin-walled rectangular waveguide tube. The cross-sectional distortion, which contains the flange distortion and the web distortion, depends on the stress components distribution. In this paper, the cross-sectional distortion characteristics are investigated using a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model. Results show that: the maximum flange distortion locates at the symmetric line; meanwhile, the maximum web distortion locates at the extrados ridge of the tube. The deformation zone of the tube can be divided into three sub-zones considering the loads and deformation, viz., the clamp die affect zone, the middle zone, and the mandrel/cores affect zone. Then the underlying relations between the cross-sectional distortion and the stress components are obtained. It is found that the flange distortion has a close relation with the circumferential stress. At the same time, the web distortion is relevant to both the tangential and the circumferential stress. The above relations are verified by FE models with different cores number. Moreover, some guidelines are introduced to help reduce the cross-sectional distortion.