Numerical investigation of the combined effects of curvature and normal stress on sheet metal formability

A number of parts and components involved in the automotive industry are made of thin bent sheets, which are subjected to out-of-plane compressive stresses in addition to traditional in-plane stresses. Unfortunately, the classical predictions based on the conventional concept of Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) are no longer relevant when the strain distribution is heterogonous over the sheet thickness. Therefore, this conventional FLD concept is not capable of accounting for the effect of out-of-plane stresses on the onset of localized necking. The aim of the present contribution is to propose an extension of the well-known Marciniak–Kuczynski approach to simultaneously account for the effect of curvature and normal stress on formability prediction. The new developed tool allows predicting the limit strains for the whole range of strain paths. The mechanical behavior of the studied sheets follows the rigid–plastic flow theory. Through numerical results, it is shown that both curvature and normal stress tend to increase the formability limit of the sheet metal.