Damage-coupled FLD of Sheet Metals for Warm Forming and Nonproportional Loading

A method of forming limit prediction for sheet metals at high temperatures and under nonproportional loading is presented. The method takes into account the strain-softening behaviors of the material at elevated temperatures. A localized necking criterion based on an isotropic damage-coupled acoustic tensor is developed and employed to determine the forming limits of strain-softening materials. The damage evolution equation is developed within the thermo-mechanical framework. A closed-form expression of the forming limit strains is derived by coupling the damage evolution equation into the localized necking criterion. A computer program, incorporating the incremental theory of plasticity, the damage evolution equation and the localized necking criterion, is developed to compute the forming limit strains under several nonproportional loading paths. A series of the uniaxial tensile tests is performed to measure the relevant mechanical properties of AA6061 at the elevated temperature of 450 degrees C. The material damage variables are determined from the measured elastic modulii from a series of loading and unloading paths. The damage evolution equation of AA6061 at 450 degrees C is formulated based on the test data. The computed limit strains are compared with the test results under various loading paths and a good agreement is observed. It is found that the critical damage value is independent on the stress states and loading paths. It may be concluded that the application of the material damage as a reliable criterion of localized necking including the nonproportional loading cases.