Abstract Three dimensional (3D) FE models have been developed for simulation of the incremental forming processes employed in UOE linepipe manufacturing at Tata Steel Hartlepool 42” Pipe Mill, namely edge crimping (C-press) and pipe expansion (expander). Transitional zone behaviour resulted from both forming operations as previously identified in practice has been revealed, for the first time, by the 3D FE simulations and preliminarily analysed. It was demonstrated that the transitional zone features observed in both edge crimping and pipe expansion were initiated in the plate/pipe feed-in side/area of the dies, and then formed within the working length/face of the forming dies. Detailed examination and analysis of the FE results, in terms of plastic strain and residual stress patterns as well as contact pressure distributions, have shown that the initiation of the transitional zone features was due to the redundant plastic deformation caused by (cantilever) bending in the material feed-in area of the dies mainly along the longitudinal direction. It is therefore believed that minimisation/elimination of such redundant plastic bending effect in the longitudinal direction would lead to minimisation/elimination of the unfavourable deformation features in the so-called transitional zones, which could be achieved through improved die designs and possibly forming process parameter settings.
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