On the fracture prediction of 304L stainless steel sheets utilizing different hardening models

Fracture prediction is one of the challenging problems in sheet metals. Forming limit curves at fracture (FLCF), as a tool to determine fracture in sheet metal processes, are obtained through the use of numerical analyses. As one of the approaches, the ductile fracture criteria (DFCs) represent the fracture initiation of the sheets formed by different loading histories. In this study, the effects of three different hardening models on different DFCs to predict the fracture for stainless steel 304L have been investigated. The results show that most of DFCs work better in the region. epsilon(2)< 0 especially with the kinematic hardening model. However, for the region. epsilon(2)> 0 where the stretching conditions are dominant, none of them could precisely estimate the fracture initiation.