Abstract: Air bending is one of the important metal forming
processes, because of its simplicity and large field application.
Accuracy of analytical and empirical models reported for the analysis
of bending processes is governed by simplifying assumption and do
not consider the effect of dynamic parameters. Number of researches
is reported on the finite element analysis (FEA) of V-bending, Ubending,
and air V-bending processes. FEA of bending is found to be
very sensitive to many physical and numerical parameters. FE
models must be computationally efficient for practical use. Reported
work shows the 3D FEA of air bending process using Hyperform LSDYNA
and its comparison with, published 3D FEA results of air
bending in Ansys LS-DYNA and experimental results. Observing the
planer symmetry and based on the assumption of plane strain
condition, air bending problem was modeled in 2D with symmetric
boundary condition in width. Stress-strain results of 2D FEA were
compared with 3D FEA results and experiments. Simplification of
air bending problem from 3D to 2D resulted into tremendous
reduction in the solution time with only marginal effect on stressstrain
results. FE model simplification by studying the problem
symmetry is more efficient and practical approach for solution of
more complex large dimensions slow forming processes.