Finite Element Simulation Model to Predict the Formability of AA 2014 T6 Aluminum Sheets at Elevated Temperatures

Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) is a well-recognized tool which is used to measure the formability of sheet metals. Enhancing the formability of light weight sheet metals is a wide research area in automotive industries. Light metal is a good sustainable replacement for existing conventional materials in automotive vehicles to improve fuel consumption by reducing the total weight of the vehicles. In this research work FLDs were developed at elevated temperature conditions by using Nakajima experiment setup for AA 2014 T6 Aluminum alloy sheets which can be used in automotive applications such as aircraft and car body panels. Material properties were obtained from initial testing such as tension test, Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) test and Anisotropy test. Numerical simulation model of sheet metal formability setup was developed using ABAQUS/Standard. Second time derivative of the thickness strain method was used to identify onset of necking in numerically simulated deformed sheets to develop FLDs. FLDs developed from numerical model were compared with experimental findings to validate the numerical models. Simulated results show a good agreement with the experimental findings. The developed simulation model can be used to estimate the formability of the Aluminum sheet metal at different parameter conditions as a green solution by minimizing the experimental cost and time taken for complex formability tests.