A Modified M-K Method for Accurate Prediction of FLC of Aluminum Alloy

Forming limit curve (FLC) is an important failure criterion for sheet metals in sheet metal forming, while the M-K model is widely used for the prediction of the FLC. In the M-K model, such prediction is greatly influenced by the initial thickness imperfection factor and material properties, from which the original M-K model’s theoretical derivation is proposed as a solution to the above mentioned issue in this paper. Then the relationship between the M-K model and Keeler’s empirical formula is then studied, from which a new method to predict FLC is proposed that combines the M-K model with Keeler’s empirical formula according to the previous analyses. It turns out that this new method can simplify the calculation procedure. Finally, the experimental results of two kinds of aluminum alloys, AA6016 and AA5182, have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.