Issue 75

A. Casaroli et alii, Fracture and Structural Integrity, 75 (2026) 179-199; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.75.13

Figure 13: Planar deformations and thickness of the spherical cap generated by the Erichsen test. To allow comparison between the different experimental conditions, the position of the measurements was normalized with respect to the length of the deformed zone between one of the two blank holders and the apex of the spherical cap. Position 1 indicates the apex of the cap, while position 0 indicates the blank holder. The image only considers the half of the cap not affected by the crack.

FEM A NALYSIS OF THE E RICHSEN T ESTS

he results shown in the previous paragraphs were used to calibrate the finite element model of an Erichsen test by varying steel and lubrication. This step is very important for the development of a model dedicated to the simulation of deep drawing processes. The geometry of the sheet metal, the punch, and the blank holder were modelled as shells using the ABAQUS ® /CAE software (Fig. 14-a) respecting the dimensions of the real testing machine defined in Fig. 8. The sheet metal was discretized using three-node 3D shell finite elements (S3R type) of size between 3.6mm (periphery of the specimen) and 0.4mm in the areas beneath the blank holder and the punch (Fig. 14-b). Exploiting the geometric T

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