Blank design optimization on deep drawing of square shells

A numerical scheme for improving the drawability in the deep drawing of square shells by blank design optimization is presented. The numerical scheme is formulated as an optimization problem whose objective is to maximize the drawability, subject to the constraint that fracture failure and draw-in failure do not occur. Appropriate blank design parameters are used as the design variables of the formulation. To enable the numerical scheme to work models predicting the onset of fracture failure and draw-in failure are required. Numerical models simulating the onset of these failures under the given process conditions are thus discussed. Optimal designs for three cases are then presented. Finally, by considering both the drawability and the non-uniformity of the final flange profile it is shown that the circular profile can be considered to be the optimal blank shape for square cup drawing.