Determination of forming limit diagram for tube hydroforming based on the strain rate change criterion

Abstract

Tube hydroforming (THF) is an attractive manufacturing process in automotive industry, and forming limit diagram (FLD) is a significant strategy to assess the formability of THF. In present study, a method of predicting the FLD for THF is developed based on finite element (FE) simulation with the strain rate change criterion (SRCC) as a failure criteria of identify localized necking. FE simulations under various linear loading paths are carried out to obtain the strain information. The equivalent strain rates at potential fracturing and its adjacent nodes are calculated and utilized with SRCC to distinguish the onset of fracturing in FE simulation. The fracture strains at the two nodes under various linear loading paths are abstracted for establishing FLD. Tube hydo-bulging experiments under the linear loading paths have been conducted to verify the prediction method of FLD, and the results show that this prediction method bears good agreement with experimental data.