A BETTER SHEET FORMABILITY TEST

A new test for sheet metal formability was designed, constructed, and used to evaluate several coated and uncoated sheet materials. Results from the OSU Formability Test were also compared with standard limiting dome height (LDH) tests and with finite element simulations. These results show that the new test is more reproducible, even using relatively uncontrolled equipment, more closely follows the desirable plane-strain path, and takes roughly one fifth of the time to perform relative to LDH. Moreover, there is good correlation between formability evaluated using the two tests. Strain measurements and finite element simulations revealed that the improvements are a result of the new test geometry, which produces more stable and repeatable plane-strain states near the fracture location.