Forming and Optimization of Dual-Window Pulsating Pressure Paths for Hydroforming of Asymmetric Corrugated Thin-Walled Tubes

Hydroforming has become an effective manufacturing technique for asymmetric corrugated thin-walled tubular components in lightweight automotive structures, owing to its capability to integrally form complex geometries. In this study, a finite-element model of the hydroforming process for 316L stainless-steel asymmetric corrugated thin-walled tubes was established, and three representative internal pressure loading paths—pulsating, linear, and stepped—were investigated using the DYNAFORM/LS-DYNA platform. The effects of different loading paths on material flow behavior, strain evolution, and forming quality, particularly wall-thickness distribution, were systematically compared. Among the three loading strategies, the pulsating pressure path exhibited the most balanced forming performance for asymmetric thin-walled tubes in terms of overall forming quality and wall-thickness control, although limited forming stability was observed in the initial pulsation scheme. To address this limitation, a dual-window orthogonal pulsation strategy was employed to optimize the initial pulsating loading path and further enhance its forming performance. The optimized pulsating curve completely eliminated the wrinkling tendency in the corrugated regions and reduced the maximum wall-thickness thinning ratio from 21.8% to 19.6%. Furthermore, the numerical simulation results show good agreement with experimental observations, with both the average wall-thickness deviation and the minimum wall-thickness error calculated using the interpolation method remaining within 2%. These results confirm the effectiveness of the optimized pulsating loading path for the hydroforming process design of asymmetric corrugated thin-walled tubes.