In this study, the incremental sheet-forming (ISF) process of foot supports
was simulated using finite-element analysis (FEA). The study employed
ABAQUS/Explicit finite-element software to study the characteristics of
manufacturing such complicated shapes. Several simulation runs have
been conducted to ensure the feasibility of the ISF approaches proposed
in this work, whereas the numerical results have been confirmed by
experimental tests. An error analysis of the thickness distribution was
made to compare the theoretical, measured, and simulation results.
The results revealed that themaximum thinning occurred at the wall
of the foot support product. The comparison showed that the variation
in simulated and experimental depth along the profile of the product
base didn't exceed 8%. Furthermore, the vertical reaction force on the
forming tool increases with forming depth until a specific maximum
value and remains approximately constant until the onset of sheet
cracking, then starts to decrease. Also, strain increased gradually and
reached its maximum value at a depth of 25 mm. Energy consumption in
deep drawing shows a reduction of 2.5 times that consumed in the ISF
process for the same final depth.