Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 75 – 79

Computer simulation of pipe-bending processes with small bending

radius using local induction heating
Z. Hu *,1, J.Q. Li
Metal Forming Di6ision, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua Uni6ersity, 100084 Beijing, PR China

Received 12 December 1997

Abstract

Through analyzing the stress state and deformation of pipe bending using local induction heating with small bending radius,
a computer simulation system has been developed based on the FEM software ANSYS and finite strain elasto – plastic theory. The
results, such as the thinning and thickening ratio of the pipe wall thickness, the pushing force with or without a reverse moment
acting on the bending arm, the proper reverse moment that is to be applied on the bending arm to control the wall thinning ratio
of the bending outside to within a particular value, the ovality of the cross-section of the pipe and the spring-back angle after
unloading and so on, can be obtained using this system. Pipe-bending process with a relative bending radius R/D0 = 1.5 and with
or without a reverse moment acting on the bending arm has been simulated. © 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Pipe bending; Computer simulation; Small bending radius; Induction heating; ANSYS

1. Introduction conventional pipe-bending techniques with local induc-

Pipe bending using local induction heating is an
advanced process that is used to bend pipes with small
bending radius and large diameter. It is efficient, of
lower cost and provides a higher-quality product, and
has been used widely in many fields, such as in the
power, transportation and chemical industries and so
on, since it was invented by Dai-ichi High Frequency
Co. (DHF) of Japan in 1961 [1 – 3]. The outline of pipe
bending using local induction heating is shown in Fig.
1. During pipe bending, the wall of the bending outside
is thinned and the wall of the bending inside is thick-
ened, the cross-section of the bend pipe becomes oval,
and bending angle suffers some spring-back caused by
elastic deformation after unloading. In engineering de-
sign, the thinning of the pipe wall is not allowed to
exceed 12.5% and the ovality is not allowed to exceed
7%, so the bending radius is generally greater than 3.5
times the outside diameter of the pipe when using
* Corresponding author. Fax: +81-823-733284.
E-mail address: zhu@cniri.go.jp (Z. Hu)
1
Present address: Chugoku National Industrial Research Institute
AIST, MITI, Hiro-Suehiro 2-2-2, Kure, Hiroshima, 737-0197 Japan.
tion heating. In order to reduce the space of installation
and the cost of investment, research into the theory and
computer simulation of pipe-bending processes involv-
ing a small bending radius is greatly needed.
2. Basic formulation of FEM based on finite strain
elasto–plasticity theory
Supposing that the equilibrium states at all the time
steps from time 0 to t have been obtained, the equi-
librium equation at time t+ Dt can be expressed as
follows, according to the virtual work principle:
& s·do·dV =
& q·du·dV +
& p·du·dS (1)
V V S
where: s and o are the Cauchy stress tensor and the
small strain tensor respectively, which need to be con-
verted to the second Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor and
the Green strain tensor, respectively, in updated La-
grange configuration descriptions; q and p are body
force vector and surface pressure vector, respectively;
and du is the virtual displacement.

0924-0136/99/$ - see front matter © 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 4 2 5 - 7
76 Z. Hu, J.Q. Li / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 75–79

Fig. 1. Outline of pipe bending using induction heating.

Discretization of this problem is accomplished by

means of the standard finite-element procedure. The
tangential stiffness matrix [KT ] is obtained as follows: Fig. 2. True stress – true strain curve of mild steel at different temper-
atures.
[KT ] =[K]+ [GS ] (2)
where: [K]= V [B]T[DT][B]dV is the stiffness matrix;
ships between true stress and true strain at the strain
[B] is the common geometric matrix for small strain,
rate of about 0.01 s − 1 are shown in Fig. 2. Accord-
(but [DT] is not general stress – strain matrix [Dep]);
ing to the symmetry of the pipe bending structure
and [GS] is the stress – stiff matrix, after aggregation, a
about the X–Z plane, only the half-part of +Y is
group of non-linear equation is obtained. The New-
analyzed. The FEM meshed model is shown in Fig.
ton – Raphson method is used to linearize these equa-
3, in which 1388 3-D solid elements and 908 contact
tions:
elements were generated. The pipe is heated locally
[KT ]{Du}= {F}a −{F}nr (3) within a heating zone of width 100 mm by an induc-
tion coil with frequency 0.5 kHz, the maximum tem-
where: {Du} is the displacement incremental at the
perature reaching 1000°C at the outside surface of the
elemental node; {F}a is the applied force vector; and
pipe in the heating zone [2,3]. The temperature distri-
{F}nr = V [B]T{s}dV is Newton – Raphson restored
bution caused by local induction heating is shown in
force vector.
Fig. 4, the pipe being pushed to move in the −Z
direction at a speed of v= 1–2 mm s − 1 during pipe-
bending processing so that the temperature distribu-
3. Setting-up the computer simulation model of the
tion is dynamically stable in the region to be bent.
pipe-bending process
The bending angle is controlled at 90°.
To produce the bent pipe, of which the thinning
To investigate the process parameters of pipe-bend-
ratio otn of the wall thickness at the bending outside
ing using local induction heating with a small bend-
is not allowed to exceed 12.5%, the following equa-
ing radius so as to control the whole process, a
tion is obtained [4,5]:
computer simulation system has been set up based on
the FEM software ANSYS and its APDL (ANSYS t0 − t 1− sin a
otn = 5 = 12.5% (4)
parametric design language). As an application of this t0 R/rm + sin a
system, an example is calculated, in which the pipe is
mild steel with an outside diameter of D0 =609.6
(mm), a wall thickness of t0 =38.9 (mm) and a bend-
ing radius of R/D0 =1.5. The elastic modulus E is
changed with temperature as in Table 1. The relation-

Table 1
Relationship between elastic modulus and temperature

20°C 500°C 600°C 1000°C

ET/E20°C(%) 100 62 59 9
Fig. 3. FEM model of pipe bending.
 Z. Hu, J.Q. Li / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 75–79
Fig. 4. Distribution of temperature.
Thus the deviation angle a ]32.1972°, and the relation-
ship between the rotary angular velocity v of the
bending arm and the moving velocity 6 of the pipe can
be expressed as follows:
6
v5 =0.0534666 (° s − 1)
R+rm sin a
where the unit of 6 is mm s − 1. The thinning of the pipe
wall at the bending outside can be controlled, according
to Eq. (5), by applying a proper reverse moment to
bending arm to control the angular velocity of the arm.
4. Analysis and discussion of the computer simulation
results
In the two cases of computer simulation, no reverse
moment is applied to the bending arm for the free-
bending case, and the thinning ratio of the wall thick-
ness at the bending outside, otn, is set to be 12.5% for
the controlled bending case. The bent pipe is shown in
Fig. 5. The relationship between the thinning or thick-
ening ratio of the pipe wall thickness, with or without
the reverse moment, and the bending angle is shown in
Fig. 6. For free bending, there is a trough at a bending
angle of f :52.5°, at which the line linked from the
bending-arm pivot to the center of the clamp is parallel
to the direction of movement of the pipe. The wall
thinning ratio is controlled very well, and does not
exceed 12.5% for controlled bending, according to Eq.
(5).
Fig. 5. Computer simulation of the whole bending process.
77
The relationship between pushing force and bending
angle is shown in Fig. 7. There is also a trough at a
bending angle of f:52.5°: passing beyond this special
bending angle, the forces acting on the bending struc-
ture will be changed, the pushing force is increased
(5) greatly for controlled bending, which will need to be
considered seriously in the design of a pipe-bending
machine. In order to control the thinning ratio of the
pipe wall thickness at the bending outside to as not to
exceed 12.5%, a proper reverse moment has to be
applied on the bending arm of the pipe-bending ma-
chine. The relationship between the reverse moment
and the bending angle is presented in Fig. 8, showing a
non-linear change. The maximum of the reverse mo-
ment is reached at a bending angle of f: 20°.
The ovality d of the cross-section of the bent pipe is
calculated by means of the following equation:
Dmax − Dmin
d= (6)
D0
The relationship between the ovality and the bending
angle is shown in Fig. 9. The ovality for controlled
bending can controlled to the very small level of :1%.
Fig. 6. Relationship between wall-thinning or -thickening and bend-
ing angle.
78 Z. Hu, J.Q. Li / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 75–79
Fig. 7. Relationship between pushing force and bending angle.
The relationship between spring-back angle and
bending angle, after unloading, is shown in Fig. 10.
The spring-back angle for free bending shows a gen-
eral increase with the bending angle, to a relatively
high value, whilst the spring-back angle for the con-
trolled bending shows a general decrease with the
bending angle to a very small value. A different
bending angle corresponds to different spring-back
angles [6].
5. Conclusions
1. The computer simulation system, that has been
developed, based on ANSYS software and finite
Fig. 8. Relationship between reverse moment and bending angle.
Fig. 9. Relationship between ovality and bending angle.
strain theory, can be used to simulate the whole
process of pipe bending using local induction heat-
ing with small bending radius. The results, such as
the thinning and thickening ratio of pipe wall
thickness, the ovality of the cross-section of the
pipe, the spring-back angle after unloading, the
bending force and the reverse movement, can be
obtained using this computer simulation system.
2. To produce pipe bends with a small bending ra-
dius (R= 1.5D0) to specification, a proper reverse
moment needs to be applied on the bending arm
of the pipe-bending machine. The reverse moment
changes non-linearly with the bending angle, for
which the relationship can be obtained by the
computer simulation system.
Fig. 10. Relationship between spring-back angle and bending angle,
after unloading.
 Z. Hu, J.Q. Li / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 91 (1999) 75–79
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