Formability analysis of magnesium alloy sheet bulging using FE simulation

There is currently much focus on the application of magnesium alloys to automotive structural components. This has arisen due to the positive environmental aspects associated with use of magnesium alloys such as weight reduction and recycling potential. In recent years many researchers have focused on the application of various forming processes to magnesium alloys. Magnesium alloys would seem highly suitable for sheet forming due to high N and r values, however, in application their formability has been inferior to, for example, aluminium alloys. It has thus been concluded that, when dealing with magnesium alloys, it is difficult to predict formability based on material properties. In order to improve formability and forming accuracy when using Mg alloys it is necessary to build a database and inference system which could decide the optimal forming parameters for complex automotive components. Currently not enough data is available to build such a database due to the limited number of studies available in literature. In this study an experimental analysis of hemispherical bulge forming at elevated temperature was undertaken in order to evaluate formability and hence build a database for forming process design. A finite element model based on the experiment has been built and validated against the experimental results. A ductile failure criterion has been integrated with the FE model and is used to predict the onset of failure. This paper discusses the development and validation of the finite element model with the ductile failure criterion and presents results from the experimental tests and FE simulations.