Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Procedia Engineering 81 (2014) 736 741

11th International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, ICTP 2014, 19-24 October 2014,
Nagoya Congress Center, Nagoya, Japan

Predicting effect of temperature, strain rate and strain path changes

on forming limit of lightweight sheet metal alloys
Omer El Fakir, LiLiang Wang*, Daniel Balint, John P. Dear, Jianguo Lin
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City and Guilds Building, Imperial College London, SW7 2BX, UK

Abstract

With the advent of novel hot stamping technologies to produce increasingly complex components, conventional FLDs, which
are usually only determined at a constant temperature, strain rate and strain path, are unable to provide an accurate definition of
formability. This is particularly the case with the solution Heat treatment, Forming and in-die Quenching (HFQ) process. In this
work, a viscoplastic constitutive model was developed to predict the flow stress and formability of a sheet metal alloy
undergoing temperature, strain rate and strain path changes. The capability of the proposed model was demonstrated by
presenting the effect of these varying conditions on the stress-strain curves and FLDs of the aluminium alloy AA5754.

2014
2014 The
The Authors.
Authors.Published
Publishedby
byElsevier
ElsevierLtd.
Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Nagoya University and Toyohashi University of Technology.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya University
Keywords: Forming limit diagrams; Constitutive modelling; Aluminium alloy; AA5754; Hot stamping; HFQ

1. Introduction

Forming limit diagrams (FLDs) are an essential tool in the finite element (FE) modelling of forming processes,
as they indicate the level of deformation that can occur in a sheet metal alloy before fracture takes place. They are
determined experimentally for constant temperatures, strain paths and strain rates, by measuring the limit strains of
specimens formed using stretch-forming tests (Ayres and Wenner, 1979; Naka et al., 2001). Sheet metal
formability has been shown to differ with varying temperature, strain rate and strain path (Hsu et al., 2008; Hsu et

* Corresponding author. Prof. Lin, Tel.: +44 20 7594 7082; Dr. Wang,Tel: +44 20 7594 3648.
E-mail address: [email protected], [email protected]

1877-7058 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya University
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.10.069
 Omer El Fakir et al. / Procedia Engineering 81 (2014) 736 741 737

al., 2006; Stoughton and Yoon, 2012), however due to the time and resources required to generate a single FLD, it
would not be realistic to produce one for every possible condition that occurs in a forming process.
With the tremendous growth in the use of lightweight alloys in vehicle structures to curb CO 2 emissions
(Casadei and Broda, 2007; Lutsey, 2010), the application of warm and hot stamping technologies to produce
components from these alloys has been expanding; the limited formability at room temperature necessitates the use
of elevated temperatures (Mohamed et al., 2012; Toros et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2011). One such technology is the
solution Heat treatment, Forming, and in-die Quenching process, in which the sheet metal is solutionized before
forming at a high speed in a cold die (Lin and Dean, 2005; Mohamed et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2011).
Experimentally determined FLDs would no longer be applicable to such a process, due to the varying temperature,
strain rate and strain path that different regions of the sheet metal experience during forming. In effect, each point
of a formed component would have its own loading history, and theoretically, a unique FLD would be required for
each point. A sensible FLD prediction model is therefore essential.
In the present study, a viscoplastic constitutive model was developed to predict the stress-strain relationships
and FLDs for a lightweight sheet metal alloy undergoing temperature, strain rate and strain path changes during
deformation. Dislocation density-based hardening constitutive equations were utilized to model the flow stress
evolution, taking into account the thermo-mechanical history of the deformation, with the anisotropic behaviour of
the sheet metal described by the Hosford yield criterion. A physically based damage model was implemented to
predict fracture. The model was calibrated using the results of uniaxial tensile tests and formability tests conducted
on the aluminium alloy AA5754. The effect of varying temperature, strain rate and strain path on the FLD was then
presented.

2. Methods

2.1. Modeling details

At the elevated temperatures that a sheet metal experiences during warm or hot stamping, the microstructure
and behaviour will vary throughout the process (Lin and Dean, 2005; Lin and Liu, 2003); a set of viscoplastic
constitutive equations utilizing dislocation density based hardening laws was hence implemented to accurately
model the deformation. These equations were combined with a physically based damage model to predict the final
failure of the material. It is assumed that there exists an initial imperfection in the material, denoted zone B, where
the thickness is slightly lower than the rest of the material, denoted zone A (0DUFLQLDNDQG.XF]\VNL). The
initial size of this imperfection is given by f 0 , and is the ratio of the thickness in zone B to A; its value was
calibrated using experimental FLDs. As deformation progresses, the imperfect factor f (Equation 1) decreases, and
strain becomes localized at zone B; failure occurs when the ratio of strains in zone B to A approaches a critical
value, shown in Eq. (2).
f f 0 exp(H 3 B  H 3 A ), (1)
d H 1B dH
t 10, or 3 B t 10. (2)
d H1 A dH3A

The different points along the FLD representing different strain conditions were calculated by varying the ratio
between the minor and major strain in zone A. This ratio, denoted , has a value of -0.5 for the uniaxial condition,
and a value of 1 in the biaxial condition. Deformation in zone B was then deduced from minor strain compatibility
with zone A at their interface (Equation 3), and by ensuring that Eq. (4) was satisfied throughout the deformation
process.
H 2 A H 2B , (3)
V 1 A f V 1B . (4)
All the following equations had to therefore be solved simultaneously for both zone A and B. The viscoplastic
flow rule is shown in Eq. (5), and is a function of the flow stress and the isotropic hardening variable, R (Eq. (6)).
738 Omer El Fakir et al. / Procedia Engineering 81 (2014) 736 741

This in itself is a function of the normalized dislocation density (Eq. (7)), which accounts for the accumulation and
annihilation of dislocations during deformation; hence R captures the effect of hardening due to dislocation pile-
up and entanglement (Lin and Dean, 2005). The anisotropic nature of the sheet material was represented by the
Hosford yield function, shown in Eq. (9) (Hosford, 1985). The constant a is set to 6 for FCC metals, while R 1 and
R 2 are the longitudinal and transverse r-values respectively, determined from tensile tests.
n1
V ( A, B )  R( A, B )  k
HP ( A, B ) , (5)
K
R( A, B ) B U(0.5
A, B ) , (6)
U ( A, B ) A(1  U( A, B ) )HP ( A, B )  C U (nA2 , B ) , (7)
V ( A, B ) E (H ( A, B )  H P( A, B ) ), (8)
a a a a
R2V 1( A, B )  R1V 2( A, B )  R1 R2 (V 1( A, B )  V 2( A, B ) ) R2 ( R1  1)V ( A, B ) . (9)

where k, K, n 1 , B, A, n 2 and E are temperature-dependent material constants calibrated using the results of uniaxial
tension tests. The equations were solved until one of the failure conditions was satisfied. The minor and major
strains in zone A at failure were hence the limit strains for that particular value; by combining the limit strains for
each value, a FLD for a constant temperature, strain rate and strain path could be constructed. The use of a time
integration procedure also enabled the effect on the FLD of time dependent phenomena and process conditions,
such as the varying temperatures, strain rates and strain paths in a hot stamping process, to be captured.

2.2. Experimental details

Uniaxial tension tests were conducted on the aluminium alloy AA5754 at different temperatures and strain rates.
Strains rates of 0.001, 0.1 and 1/s, at temperatures of 200, 250 and 300 C, were tested, using a high rate Instron
testing machine with an integrated furnace; strain was measured through DIC techniques using ARAMIS software,
provided by GOM. The results were used to calibrate the constants of the constitutive equations. The formability of
the material was also assessed using dome tests (Shi et al., 2012), following the international standard for the
determination of forming limit curves (ISO, 2008). Waisted circular blanks with central shafts of different widths
were tested, each representing a different strain path, at different temperatures and forming speeds. The generated
FLDs were then also used to calibrate the material model, by varying the f 0 value (Eq. (1)).

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 1(a) shows the close agreement that was achieved between the flow stresses predicted using the material
model (solid line) and the experimental results (symbols), for different temperatures, at a strain rate of 1 /s. The
viscoplastic effect was also accurately modelled, as shown by the close agreement between the predicted and
experimental flow stress in Fig. 1(b) for different strain rates, at a temperature of 250 C.
 Omer El Fakir et al. / Procedia Engineering 81 (2014) 736 741 739

(a) 300 (b) 300

250 250

True stress (MPa)

True stress (MPa)

200 200
150 150
100 200C, 1/s 100
250C, 1/s 1/s, 250C 00.1/s, 250C
50 300C, 1/s 50
0.001/s, 250C
0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
True strain True strain
Fig. 1. Comparison between the predicted (lines) and experimental (symbols) stress-strain curves at different temperatures (a), and different
strain rates (b).

With the material model for AA5754 calibrated and verified using the results of the uniaxial tension tests, it was
then applied in the prediction of FLDs for the material. Fig. 2 shows close agreement between the predicted and
experimental FLDs at temperatures of 200 and 300 C, at a forming speed of 75 mm/s. The parallel flow stress
curves shown in Figure 1(a) indicate that the strain hardening of AA5754 at 200 and 300 C is almost the same.
However, the strain rate hardening coefficient (1/n 1 in Eq. (5)) increased from 0.078 at 200 C to 0.125 at 300 C.
Therefore, the pronounced strain rate hardening effect at higher temperatures led to the increased formability. In
particular, the higher strain rate in zone B would increase the strength difference between zone A and zone B,
limiting the strain ratios between them, and therefore delaying the onset of necking at zone B. The effect of a
quenching rate of 50 C/s being applied from an initial temperature of 300 C is also presented; as expected, the
resulting FLD is lower, indicating a drop in formability as a result of temperature decreasing.

1
Model: 300C 0.9
0
Major strain

0.8
0
0.7
0
7HPSC 0
0.6 EXP: 300C
at a quenching rate
0.5
of 50C/s
0.4
0.3
0.2 7HPSC
at a quenching rate
EXP: 200C 0.1
01 Model: 200C of 100C/s
0
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Minor strain

Fig. 2. Predicted and experimental FLDs at temperatures of 200 and 300C, at a speed of 75 mm/s.

Fig. 3 shows close agreement between the predicted and experimental FLDs at forming speeds of 20 and 300
mm/s, at a temperature of 250 C. Both strain hardening and strain rate hardening enhance formability. Strain
hardening is more pronounced at low temperature conditions, while strain rate hardening is the dominant factor at
higher temperatures. Hence at the onset of strain localization in zone B, and the resulting steep increase in strain
rate, the strength in this region is increased, delaying the onset of necking; at 250 C the formability is therefore
higher when the strain rate is lower. The effect of a strain rate reduction to 0.25 /s being applied from an initial
740 Omer El Fakir et al. / Procedia Engineering 81 (2014) 736 741

strain rate of 3.5 /s is also presented; as expected, the resulting FLD is higher, indicating an improvement in
formability as a result of strain rate decreasing.
1
Model: 20 0.
0.9

Major strain
mm/s
0.
0.8
0.
0.7
EXP: 20mm/s
0.
0.6 $YHU65V

SR: 3.5 V

0.5
at rate of 10/s2 0.4
Model: 300 mm/s 0.3
0.2 65V
EXP: at rate of 30/s2
0.1
300mm/s
0 Aver.
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Minor strain
Fig. 3. Predicted and experimental FLDs at forming speeds of 20 and 300 mm/s, at a temperature of 250 C.

A change in strain path on the FLD of AA5754 was also successfully captured, as shown in Fig. 4. Uniaxial pre-
stretching enhanced the formability of the material during biaxial straining, while biaxial pre-stretching enhanced
the formability of the material during uniaxial straining. This is consistent with many previous research findings,
such as those of Graf and Hosford in (Graf and Hosford, 1993) and (Graf and Hosford, 1994).

1
Major strain

Linear strain 0.9

0. Temperature: 300C
Average strain rate: 0.88/s
0.8
0.
0.7
0.
0.
0.6
Non-linear strain paths: 0.5
= - 0.5 pre-stretching for 0.1
0.4
0.3
0.2 Non-linear strain paths:
= 1 pre-stretching for 0.1 s
0.1
0
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Minor strain
Fig. 4. Effect of change in strain path on the FLD, at temperature of 300C and average strain rate of 0.88/s.

Although stress based forming limit curves (FLSCs) have the benefit of being almost path-independent
(Yoshida et al., 2007), for hot stamping processes, traditional strain based FLCs are probably more effective; in
FLSCs, each stress value may not have a corresponding unique strain value, making it more difficult to define a
stress limit for necking. Also, the integration of strain with a small time increment is perhaps more suitable for the
prediction of forming limits when loading history effects are pronounced.

4. Conclusion

A FLD prediction model was presented and successfully validated using experimental results from uniaxial
tension and formability tests on the aluminium alloy AA5754. The ability of the model to capture time dependent
 Omer El Fakir et al. / Procedia Engineering 81 (2014) 736 741 741

phenomena was also demonstrated, with obvious effects on the materials properties as a result of a change in
temperature, strain rate and strain path. The models capability will be further verified by comparing the measured
failure strains from a point on an actual hot formed component, to the predicted forming limit at that point taking
into account its temperature, strain rate and loading history. This will highlight the value of using such a model in
FE forming process simulations, to ensure sensible components and forming tool design, and to select the optimal
process parameters and appropriate material to produce a given sheet metal component successfully.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the EPSRC (Grant Ref: EP/I038616/1) for TARF-LCV:
Towards Affordable, Closed-Loop Recyclable Future Low Carbon Vehicle Structures.

References
Ayres, R., Wenner, M., 1979. Strain and strain-rate hardening effects in punch stretching of 5182-0 aluminum at elevated temperatures. MTA
10, 41-46.
Casadei, A., Broda, R., 2007. Impact of Vehicle Weight Reduction on Fuel.
Economy for Various Vehicle Architectures. Ricardo.
Graf, A., Hosford, W., 1993. Effect of changing strain paths on forming limit diagrams of Al2008-T4. Metallurgical Transactions a-Physical
Metallurgy and Materials Science 24, 2503-2512.
Graf, A., Hosford, W., 1994. The influence of strain-path changes on forming limit diagrams of Al6111 T-4. International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences 36, 897-910.
Hosford, W.F., 1985. Comments on anisotropic yield criteria. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 27, 423-427.
Hsu, E., Carsley, J.E., Verma, R., 2008. Development of forming limit diagrams of aluminum and magnesium sheet alloys at elevated
temperatures. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 17, 288-296.
Hsu, E., Szpunar, J.A., Verma, R., 2006. Effect of Temperature and Strain Rate on Formability of AZ31 Magnesium Sheet Alloy. SAE
International.
ISO, 2008. Metallic materials -- Sheet and strip -- Determination of forming-limit curves -- Part 2: Determination of forming-limit curves in the
laboratory.
Lin, J., Dean, T.A., 2005. Modelling of microstructure evolution in hot forming using unified constitutive equations. J. Mater. Process. Technol.
167, 354-362.
Lin, J., Liu, Y., 2003. A set of unified constitutive equations for modelling microstructure evolution in hot deformation. J. Mater. Process.
Technol. 143, 281-285.
Lutsey, N.P., 2010. Review of technical literature and trends related to automobile mass-reduction technology. Institute of Transportation
Studies, UC Davis.
0DUFLQLDN=.XF]\VNL./LPLWVWUDLQVLQWKHSURFHVVHVRIVWUHWFK-forming sheet metal. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences
9, 609-620.
Mohamed, M.S., Foster, A.D., Lin, J.G., Balint, D.S., Dean, T.A., 2012. Investigation of deformation and failure features of AA6082:
Experimentation and modelling. Int. J. Mach. Tools Manuf. 53, 27-38.
Naka, T., Torikai, G., Hino, R., Yoshida, F., 2001. The effects of temperature and forming speed on the forming limit diagram for type 5083
aluminum-magnesium alloy sheet. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 113, 648-653.
Shi, Z., Wang, Y., Lin, J., Dean, T.A., Balint, D., Stanton, M., Watson, D., 2012. An Investigation, Using Standard Experimental Techniques,
to Determine FLCs at Elevated Temperature for Aluminium Alloys, The 3rd International Conference on New Forming Technology, Aug.
26-28, 2012, Harbin, China.
Stoughton, T.B., Yoon, J.W., 2012. Path independent forming limits in strain and stress spaces. Int. J. Solids Struct. 49, 3616-3625.
Toros, S., Ozturk, F., Kacar, I., 2008. Review of warm forming of aluminum-magnesium alloys. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 207, 1-12.
Wang, L., Strangwood, M., Balint, D., Lin, J., Dean, T.A., 2011. Formability and failure mechanisms of AA2024 under hot forming conditions.
Mater. Sci. Eng. A-Struct. Mater. Prop. Microstruct. Process. 528, 2648-2656.
Yoshida, K., Kuwabara, T., Kuroda, M., 2007. Path-dependence of the forming limit stresses in a sheet metal. International Journal of Plasticity
23, 361-384.