Simulation of earing profiles from texture data by means of a visco-plastic self-consistent polycrystal plasticity approach

One of the most prominent manifestations of crystallographic texture of a sheet is the formation of an uneven rim with characteristic ears and troughs during deep drawing of a cup from a circular blank. The present paper introduces a new method to derive earing profiles from texture data by means of the visco-plastic self-consistent (VPSC) polycrystal plasticity approach. Detailed finite element computations have been conducted in order to determine the evolution of stresses and strains during cup deep drawing. The resulting stress/strain history is cast into an idealized load case which is then utilized to analyze earing by means of the VPSC model. The simplified load case is imposed on the textured material at an angle α with respect to the former sheet rolling direction so as to derive the variations in radial elongation under different in-plane angles and, thereby, the resulting earing profile. The capabilities of this model in predicting earing profiles from texture are validated with a number of examples covering a wide range of rolling and recrystallization textures that are typically encountered in commercial aluminum sheet products, both hot strip and final gauge.