Tube thinning control without wrinkling occurring is a key problem urgently to be solved for improving the forming qualities in numerical control （NC） bending processes of large-diameter Al-alloy thin-walled tubes （AATTs）. It may be a way solving this problem to exert axial compression loads （ACL） on the tube end in the bending. Thus, this article establishes a three-dimensional （3D） elastic-plastic explicit finite element （FE） model for the bending under ACL and has its reliability verified. Through a multi-index orthogonal experiment design, a combination of process parameters, each expressed by a proper range, for this FE model is derived to overcome the compression instability on tube ends. By combining the FE model with a wrinkling energy prediction model, an in-depth study is conducted on the forming characteristics of large-diameter AATTs with small bending radii and it can be concluded that （1） The larger the tube diameters and the smaller the bending radii, the larger the induced tangent tension stress zones on tube intrados, by which the tube maximum tangent compression stress zones will be partitioned in the bending processes; thus, the smaller the ACL roles in decreasing thinning degrees and the larger the compression instability possibilities on tube ends. （2） The tube wrinkling possibilities under ACL are larger than without ACL acting in the earlier forming periods, and smaller in the later ones. （3） For the tubes with a size factor less than 80, the ACL roles in decreasing thinning degrees are stronger than in increasing wrinkling possibilities.
In order to develop the warming bending technology of the large diameter thin-walled（LDTW） commercial pure titanium alloy CP-Ti tubes, the warm bending mechanism of the extrados and intrados of LDTW CP-Ti tubes was researched. By EBSD analysis and Vickers hardness test, the changes of microstructure and strength of the tubes at different bending temperatures of 293, 423 and 573 K, were analyzed. The results show： 1） The extrados of the bent tube deforms mainly by slip, along with few twinning, and the preferred orientation is similar to that of the initial tube; the intrados of the bent tube experiences compression deformation mainly by {1 012} tensile twinning, and the twinning makes the preferred orientation of wall materials change sharply. 2） The Vickers hardness values of both the extrados and intrados of the samples after bending increase greatly; the Vickers hardness values of the intrados are much higher than those of the extrados, and Vickers hardness values of the RD-TD planes are always higher than those of the RD-LD planes, which are related to the different deformation mechanisms.
