Numerical and experimental study of forming limit diagrams in sheet metal forming and seamed tube hydroforming

The paper establishes the forming limit diagrams (FLDs) for QSTE340 seamed tube hydroforming and the mother sheet metal forming by numerical approach and experimental approach. A novel experimental approach is proposed to evaluate the formability for tube hydroforming under biaxial stretching through elliptical bulging. Then the Nakazima and three types of tube hydroforming tests are simulated with finite element (FE) program LS-DYNA. The failure criterion of thickness gradient criterion (TGC) is introduced. The FLDs for seamed tube hydroforming and the mother sheet metal forming are constructed. The comparison of results based on TGC with experimental data shows the TGC is an appropriate one to determine the onset of localized necking. Finally, the differences and relationships between the FLDs for the seamed tube hydroforming and the mother sheet metal forming are discussed.