An experimental study on the comparative assessment of hydraulic bulge test analysis methods

An in-depth understanding and full characterization of mechanical behavior for sheet materials are required since it is critical to establish the highly reliable material models over a broad range of strain levels for accurate modeling and analysis of sheet material deformation processes such as stamping, hydroforming, deep drawing, etc. Hydraulic bulge testing of sheet materials has been known to provide flow stress properties at higher strain levels compared to commonly used tensile tests mainly due to the fact the tested specimens are strained under biaxial loading conditions. However, analysis of the hydraulic bulge test data has not been standardized yet as there have been numerous approaches developed and adopted throughout the years. In this study, different approaches for the analysis of hydraulic bulge were compared with experimental results to determine the best combination in obtaining accurate flow curves models at room and elevated temperature conditions for different lightweight materials of interest for several industrial applications (AA5754 and AISI 201). It was determined that Panknin’s bulge radius and Kruglov’s thickness calculation approaches are the best combination to accurately obtain the flow curves at both cold and elevated temperature conditions.