Research Area

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Creep Age Forming

Creep age forming (CAF) is a process that combines forming through creep and hardening through ageing together to produce a component with required shape and properties. This is achieved by applying an external force to form the component to onto a shaped tool and holding for a specific time at an artificial ageing temperature. Springback of the component is unavoidable as it is elastically loaded. The key issues are to control the change of the properties of the material and the final shape of the formed component after springback. The main applications of CAF are for the large integral panels and aircraft wing skin panels. Current project involves material modelling through interrupted creep ageing tests, flexible CAF tool design, finite element modelling for springback prediction and tool shape optimisation.

Research Keywords

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• Materials Modelling
• Metal forming
• Creep age forming
• Inertia welding
• Residual stress
• Aluminium alloys

 

Qualifications

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• PhD in Metalurgy and Matreials (University of Birmingham)

 

Contact Details

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Tel: (+44) (0)2075 947130
Email: zhusheng.shi@imperial.ac.uk