Advancesin the study and applcation of meshless methods in metal forming

Meshless methods are a new type of numerical analysis method developed recently.Different from FEM,only nodal data are needed during the construction of field functions in meshless methods,thus getting rid of meshing and eliminating mesh distortion unavoidable in FEM.Based on their merits,meshless methods can handle metal forming processes very effectively especially large plastic deformations.After introducing the basic principles of meshless methods,this paper summarizes the advances in the study and application of meshless methods in metal forming both home and abroad.The key techniques involved are discussed,including selection of weight function,imposition of essential boundary conditions,techniques of discretization and integration,meshless contact searching algorithms and selection of frictional models in metal forming.For wider engineering application of meshless methods in metal forming,some future research areas are pointed out,i.e.coupling of meshless methods and FEM,die shape design optimization using meshless methods,prediction of cracks and defects during metal forming processes and application of meshless methods for solving 3D plastic forming problems