Comparison of Flow Curves of AA 5457-O Sheet Material Determined by Hydraulic Bulge and Tensile Tests at Warm Forming Temperatures

The deformation behavior of sheet materials changes according to temperature. It is possible that the formability of a material for different temperatures is investigated and the flow curves are obtained by using a hydraulic bulge test. Generally, biaxial stress state occurs in real forming processes. Flow curves can be derived from the hydraulic bulge test for the biaxial stress state, and the higher strain values can be achieved in comparison to the tensile test without extrapolation. Hydraulic bulge tests are preferred instead of tensile tests on account of presuming the problems can occur during the formation process of sheet material, being informed about the formability of material at the current pressure and temperature states, and obtaining flow curves to perform more accurate process simulations. In this study, the flow curves for the material AA5754-O were obtained using the warm bulge test and by considering the strain rates. The sections of the curves that can be used in simulation were identified, and these curves were comparatively investigated with respect to the curves obtained from the tensile test. In addition, case studies were performed in order to conduct more realisitic simulations using the results of the flow curves obtained from the bulge and tensile tests.