关键词: 驱动桥壳, 机械胀形, 理论推导, 数值模拟, 工艺实验

Abstract: The mechanical bulging technology with axial auxiliary thrust was proposed which was suitable for manufacturing the drive axle housings of medium-sized trucks. The mathematic expressions of the corresponding limit expansion coefficients below the recrystallization temperature were derived, the influences of the matching of each force parameters in the forming processes on the limit forming coefficients were analyzed, and the ranges of axial auxiliary loads in radial bulging processes were given. Based on the derived theory, a 5 ton truck drive axle housing was taken as the research object, DEFORM-3D software was used to simulate the key forming processes, the rules of metal flow state, stress-strain distributions and the variations of wall thickness were obtained, and the forms and locations of the defects in the expansion processes of the axle housings were predicted. Relevant physical experiments were carried out on the extrusion equipment, the experimental results show that the axial auxiliary loads are necessary to prevent cracking during bulging processes. The shape and wall thickness distributions of the qualified samples in the experiments are measured. The experiment results coincide with that of simufation. The feasibility of mechanical bulging forming technology for the drive axle housings of medium trucks is verified both in theoretical and practical areas.

Key words: drive axle housing, mechanical bulging, theoretical derivation, numerical simulation, processing experiment