Development of a new failure prediction criterion in sheet metal forming

In industrial try-out processes in sheet metal forming usually the forming limit curve is used as failure criterion in order to describe the onset of localized necking. Forming limits, however, are strain-path dependent. Up to today many different approaches how the strain-path dependent behavior of the forming limit curve can be avoided have been published. Best known are the approaches based on forming limit stress curves published by Arrieux, and the approach of Muschenborn published in 1975. An overview over existing failure criteria is given in this contribution. The failure criterion forming limit stress curve as well as several failure criteria based on Muschenborn’s approach will be evaluated with newly recorded experimental data on forming limit curves for non-proportional loading. A new approach, that is in contrast to the two mentioned approaches not based on assumptions but on experimental observations, is presented herein. The suggested approach is presented as failure surface where strains above the surface indicate the onset of localized necking. The failure surface is given as function of the loading mode and the level of effective pre-stretching. Different suggestions how to use and simplify the new approach are given in this paper. The prediction accuracy of the addressed approaches as well as of the newly suggested approach is evaluated by transforming the data of the approaches back into the conventional forming limit curve for several non-linear strain paths. The comparison of the described approaches shows that forming limits for non-proportional loading can be well-predicted with the suggested approach.