Evaluation of ductile forming limit stress in sheet forming processes and measurement of actual stress at fracture

A stress-based ductile forming limit theory applicable to nonlinear strain paths is investigated with a 11 Cr steel which displays a highly anisotropic behavior in plastic deformation. The forming limit stress is evaluated by a theoretical method based on the M-K theory, and is also measured directly in some cases with nonlinear loading paths. The evaluated and measured stresses are compared with an experimentally-obtained forming limit stress diagram, where the stresses are converted from strains by Stoughton's method. The theoretically-evaluated limit stress corresponds not to the measured stress at the onset of fracture but to the stress at the onset of localized necking. The evaluated forming limit stress and experimentally-obtained localized necking stress demonstrate no dependency on strains paths, thus verifying the applicability of the theory to this particular material. The experimentally-obtained forming limit stress diagram was corrected using the above results, which has improved the discrepancies between the experimentally- and numerically-obtained forming limit stress.