Radial basis functional model for multi-objective sheet metal forming optimization

Fracture and wrinkling are two major defects in sheet metal forming and can be eliminated via an appropriate drawbead design. This article proposes to adopt a multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) approach, which differs from traditional multi-objective optimization with construction of a single cost function. MOPSO shows a certain advantage over other single cost function or population-based algorithms. While radial basis function (RBF) has shown considerable promise in highly non-linear problems, there has been no report in sheet metal forming design. Here RBF is attempted to establish the metamodels for fracture and wrinkling criteria in sheet metal forming design. In this article, a sophisticated automobile inner stamping case is exemplified, which demonstrated that RBF provides a better surrogate accuracy and MOPSO is more effective than the other methods studied. The use of RBF driven MOPSO procedure significantly improved the formability and can be recommended for sheet metal process design.