Material Modeling in High Strain Range and Forming Limit Analysis for 6000 Series Aluminum Alloy Sheet

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of material modeling in high strain range on the forming limit analysis of a 6000-series alloy sheet 6016-T4. A servo-controlled tension-internal pressure testing machine was used to measure the multiaxial plastic deformation behavior in a strain range from initial yield to fracture. Tubular specimens were fabricated with a weld line thicker than the sheet thickness to prevent fracture from occurring in the weld zone. Proportional loading in the first quadrant of the principal stress space was applied to the specimens to measure the forming limit curve (FLC) and forming limit stress curve (FLSC), in addition to the contours of plastic work and the directions of plastic strain rates. Moreover, forming limit strains were measured using a flat-headed punch stretching test (PST). From the multiaxial tube expansion test (MTET) data, although a differential hardening effect was observed, appropriate coefficients including the exponent of the Yld2000-2d yield function (Barlat et al, 2003) were determined and employed in the Marcińiak-Kuczyski (1967) forming limit analysis (M-K analysis). The calculated forming limit strains in the vicinity of equibiaxial tension were smaller than the measured ones. The M-K analysis predicted that the forming limit strain in the vicinity of equibiaxial tension becomes minimum when the inclination angle of the localized neck from the rolling direction (RD) is 45° (diagonal direction; DD) while the experimental fracture direction was the RD. With the additional MTET, the plastic deformation behavior in the DD was measured and compared with that calculated from the material model. The reason of the discrepancy in the fracture direction between the experiment and the M-K approach is discussed.