Forming defects prediction in cup drawing and embossing of a thick steel sheet

The accurate prediction of forming defects is fundamental for the virtual try-out of metallic sheet components. However, the constitutive model can have a strong impact on the numerical predictions, namely the cup earing, the occurrence of wrinkles and the tearing failure. The process conditions considered in this work are the ones established for the “Benchmark 2 – Cup Drawing of Anisotropic Thick Steel Sheet”, proposed under the Numisheet 2018 international conference. The axisymmetric cups are obtained from a steel sheet with 2.8 mm of thickness, resorting to different process conditions to induce different defects. The advanced yield criterion proposed by Cazacu and Barlat is used to define the anisotropic behavior of the blank. The calibration of the material parameters is carried out by fitting the following experimental data from: (i) uniaxial tensile tests performed in every 15º to the rolling direction; (ii) biaxial tension tests to evaluate the directions of the plastic strain rates in the first quadrant of the yield loci. The numerical predictions are compared with the experimental measurements, allowing to assess the accuracy of the finite element model to predict each type of forming defect. The cup earing and the strain localization are accurately predicted, while the wrinkles amplitude is clearly underestimated.