Issue 75

A. Casaroli et alii, Fracture and Structural Integrity, 75 (2026) 104-123; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.75.09

d ε d ε

minor major

, (-1 α 1)   .

where n is the strain hardening exponent and

α =

Figure 5: Influence of the strain hardening exponent on the formability limit curves experimentally calculated using formulas number (6) and (7). In the left side of the FLD curves, where drawing deformation is located, a higher normal anisotropy coefficient is beneficial and can limit the deformability gap with the austenitic grades. Figure 6 shows the influence of such coefficient on the limit major and minor strains.

Figure 6: Influence of the normal anisotropy coefficient on the limit strains experimentally calculated using formulas number (6) and (7). On the base of these observations, the evaluation of the ferritic stainless steels deformability and deep drawability requires further considerations. Referring to the tensile tests results reported in Figure 4, the percentage elongation of the ferritic stainless steels is about 2.5 times less than that of austenitic steels. Moreover, the ratio among the ferritic and austenitic steels strain energy (determined as the area under the tensile curves) is equal to about 1/3. On the other hand, the Erichsen index of the ferritic steels is about 1.3 times less than that of austenitic grades. Moreover, it must be remarked that the price of ferritic stainless steels is significantly lower (at least half) and more stable over time than that of austenitic one, which is strongly influenced by the cost of nickel. These observations suggest that the deep drawability of ferritic stainless steel can be significantly improved by working on new chemical compositions able to maximize the deformability, by a careful control of the production process aimed at increasing the normal anisotropy coefficient and, if possible, selecting slightly thicker sheets. S. K. Paul [19], in fact, reported an equation to calculate the major strain when the minor is zero (plain strain condition). This value, called FLD 0 , can be predicted by Eqn. (8) when n ≤ 0.21 and the thickness t is lower than 3.1 mm.

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