Finite Element Analysis of Metal Forming Processes on Personal Computers

The main difficulty in running a rigid-plastic finite element program for metal forming analysis on a personal computer lies in the lengthy computation, typical of non-linear problems. To make the PC more acceptable for forming analyses in industrial applications, some measures have been proposed, such as using a higher order IVP solver and modifying the generation of the initial velocity field to account for the existence of rigid zones, if any. As a result, 2-D metal forming problems with moderate shape complexity can be solved on PCs within a reasonable length of time.