Forming-limit prediction of perforated aluminium sheets with square holes

Abstract

The forming-limit strains of perforated aluminium alloy (AA5052-O) sheets with square holes were theoretically and experimentally estimated for two types of hole arrangements: square and triangular patterns. The theoretical forming-limit curves were obtained by finite-element analyses on a unit module of the perforated sheets using two different approaches: the phenomenological theory and crystal plasticity theory. Hill’s quadratic anisotropic and von Mises yield functions were used for the phenomenological analysis, and the one-element-per-grain model was adopted for the crystal plasticity analysis. To determine the forming limits, two different types of plastic instability criteria were applied. The experimental forming-limit strains were also obtained through a Nakazima stretching test. The theoretical predictability of the forming-limit curves was assessed by comparing the theoretical and experimental results. The comparison demonstrated that (1) the plastic instability criterion based on the external force power predicted qualitatively the same forming-limit curves as the criterion based on the equivalent plastic strain of the ligament for both hole arrangement patterns and (2) although the shapes of the predicted forming-limit curves were in reasonable agreement with the experimental results, the level of the predicted limit strains was considerably higher than that of the experimental limit strains. Thus, it was found that neither of the plastic instability criteria previously proposed for perforated sheets is appropriate to characterise the formability of perforated aluminium sheets with square holes.