Void Nucleation Effects in Biaxially Stretched Sheets

The effects of void nucleation occurring during the deformation history on forming limit curves are considered for both in-plane and punch stretching employing a constitutive model of a porous plastic solid. Both plastic strain controlled and stress controlled nucleation processes are simulated by a two parameter void nucleation criterion. For in-plane stretching, plastic strain controlled nucleation can have, in certain circumstances, a significantly destabilizing effect on the forming limit curve. However, within the framework of plane stress theory which neglects the enhancement of the hydrostatic stress due to necking, a stress controlled nucleation process is not found to be significantly destabilizing. In punch stretching a ductile rupture criterion, which limits the maximum volume fraction of voids, as well as the appearance of a well defined thickness trough, is adopted as a localized necking criterion. Only plastic strain controlled void nucleation is considered here in out-of-plane stretching. The resulting forming limit curves have the same shape as those obtained previously with void nucleation neglected.