Error analysis of FLC experimental data at warm/hot stamping conditions

Abstract

Forming limit curves(FLCs) are commonly used for evaluating the formability of sheet metals. However, it is difficult to obtain the FLCs with desirable accuracy by experiments due to that the friction effects are non-negligible under warm/hot stamping conditions. To investigate the experimental errors, experiments for obtaining the FLCs of the AA5754 are conducted at 250°C. Then, FE models are created and validated on the basis of experimental results. A number of FE simulations are carried out for FLC test-pieces and punches with different geometry configurations and varying friction coefficients between the test-piece and the punch. The errors for all the test conditions are predicted and analyzed. Particular attention of error analysis is paid to two special cases, namely, the biaxial FLC test and the uniaxial FLC test. The failure location and the variation of the error with respect to the friction coefficient are studied as well. The results obtained from the FLC tests and the above analyses show that, for the biaxial tension state, the friction coefficient should be controlled within 0.15 to avoid significant shifting of the necking location away from the center of the punch; for the uniaxial tension state, the friction coefficient should be controlled within 0.1 to guarantee the validity of the data collected from FLC tests. The conclusions summarized are beneficial for obtaining accurate FLCs under warm/hot stamping conditions.