Summary
This work proposes a methodology for simulating the elastoplastic strain behaviors of a steel sheet under the impact of one hammer drop. The intention was to aid in the optimization of the hammer design and material performance for an enhanced steelpan building process. It navigates the complexities of the nonlinear strain behavior for the two modes: 1) the duration when the hammer deforms the sheet to create a dimple, and 2) the time after the hammer loses contact, leaving the entire system to freely vibrate. A finite element analysis using COMSOL Multiphysics software was employed to simulate the dynamic system. The model determined the strain behavior of the material during the two modes previously described. An understanding of the mechanics of deformation is crucial to the choice of an effective universal standard procedure and the appropriate tools and equipment for the sinking of a steelpan. The steelpan industry’s present choice of sinking tools ranges between separate sizes of hammers and/or shotput balls. In most cases, a sledgehammer is modified by grinding the face edge, resembling the proximity of a smooth hemisphere. A previous investigation surveyed qualitative and quantitative data on the procedure to sink the steelpan, which led to this investigation. The active interplay between experimentation and simulation revealed strains at the highest magnitudes nearer the center of the sheet. As hammer diameter increased, the strains were lower and diminished in the direction toward the end of the blank. The simulation also exposed that increasing hammer diameter produced higher compressive strains during deformation at the center.
