Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

4th International Conference on Materials Processing and Characterization

Finite element Simulation studies of AISI 304 for deep

drawing at various temperatures
Lade Jayaharia Banoth Balunaikb Amit Kumar Guptac Swadesh Kumar Singha
a

Department of Mechanical Engineering,Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology,Hyderabad 500072,

Telangana, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, JNTUH, Hyderabad, 500085, Telangana, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus,500078, Telangana, India,

Abstract:
Sheet metal forming is most important forming process in manufacturing of variety of panels and parts. Deep drawing
is the flow of material into die cavity by application of punch force. In this paper the work is aimed to investigate the
formability analysis of austenitic stainless steel 304 at various temperatures under warm conditions. Limiting draw ratio
and thickness distribution of deep drawn cups at i.e room temperature and 150 0C are calculated and these are the
indicators of formability for any material. The experimental results shows that at room temperature the limiting draw
ratio for 1mm thick sheet Austenitic stainless steel 304 is 2.1 and at 1500C for 1mm thick sheet the limiting drawing
ratio is 2.5, there is any further improvement in LDR at higher temperatures. Finite element simulations using explicit
finite element code LS-DYNA are carried out for prediction of formability from room temperature to 1500C. To
increase the accuracy in the simulation process, numbers of integration points were increased in the thickness direction
and it was found that there is very close agreement between experimental data and simulated data.

Ltd. All
rights reserved.
2015
2014 Elsevier
The Authors.
Elsevier
Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection
under
responsibility
of the conference
committeecommittee
members ofmembers
the 4th International
on
of the 4thconference
International
Selectionand
andpeer-review
peer-review
under
responsibility
of the conference
Materials
Processing
and Characterization.
conference
on Materials
Processing and Characterization.
Keywords: Deep drawing, Limiting drawing ratio, Austenitic stainless steel, FEM, Warm forming.

Foundation Item: Item

(SR/S3/MERC/0129/2012)

Sponsored

by

Department

of

Science

and

Technology

Govt.

of

INDIA

1. Introduction
In sheet metal forming a flat thin sheet metal blank is subjected to plastic deformation by tensile loads
into a three-dimensional shape, often without significant changes in sheet thickness. It involves conversion
of flat thin sheet metal blanks into parts of required shape and size. The process is carried out on the plane
of the sheet by tensile forces with high ratio of surface area to thickness [1]. These processes are
extensively used for manufacturing of simple to complex shapes and producing large number of variety of
components for various industries like food and beverages, automobile, marine, aerospace, defence, nuclear
and other sheet forming applications.
In deep drawing, which is also called cup drawing or radial drawing, flat thin sheets (blanks) are formed
into cup shaped components by pressing the central portion of the sheet into die opening using a punch to
draw the metal into the desired shape. Blank holder is loaded by a blank holder force, which is necessary to

2214-7853 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the conference committee members of the 4th International conference on Materials Processing
and Characterization.
doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2015.07.166

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

prevent wrinkling and to control the material flow into the die cavity. The punch is pushed into the die
cavity, simultaneously transferring the specific shape of the punch and the die to the blank. During the
forming stage the material is drawn out of the blank holder-die region and the material is subjected to
compressive and tensile stresses in this portion. When a very high blank holder force is applied, the deep
drawing process becomes a stretching process.Hence sheet metal forming processes are tensile in nature
and the amount of deformation that can be achieved in a single stage may be limited by the onset of tensile
instability, necking and/or tearing [2] and the required shapes are obtained with minimum defects or defects
free component[3]. The punch load is limited to the maximum tensile load that can be carried by the wall of
the cup. This maximum force limits the depth of flange that can be drawn [4].Friction conditions at the
tool-metal interface are very important and controlled by press conditions, lubrication, tool material and
surface condition [5] to get the shapes required in the application.
Now-a-days there is great demand for sheet forming applications for high strength sheet materials like
stainless steel because of corrosive resistance, high strength and durability. Deep drawing of high strength
materials at ambient temperature, there are some limitations due to higher mean flow stresses the material
becomes harder, which leads to necking or facture occurs at the punch corner radius of the deep drawn cup
due to this higher draw ratio is not achievable. Wrinkles are observed in the work piece when the blank is
not clamped or when the BHF is improper. This defect is observed in the cup during deformation when the
blank material passes through the blank holder the Draw Bead bends and unbends the material [6-8].To
increase the draw ratio, reverse drawing or re-drawing processes etc., can also be used and since this
processes are more time consuming, lots of efforts and energy is consumed but not that effort able.
Stainless steels are work horse material used in various industries for various applications due to its
excellent mechanical properties.
Mechanical properties for AISI 304 materialis required to carry out finite element (FE) analysis of
forming the material at different conditions. Formability of this material can be estimated through specific
characteristics of the sheet undergone during the deep drawing process [9-11]. The limiting drawing ratio
(LDR) is one of the commonly used characteristic of the formability, which can be measured in deep
drawing. The LDR is the ratio of maximum blank diameter to maximum cup diameter, which can be
produced in a single stroke without failure or fracture. Thickness of the drawn cup is also an important
factor which governs the quality of the cup. In the present study LDR and the thickness of the drawn cup
were found through finite element simulations using the explicit finite element code, LS-Dyna. These
simulations are validated by performing the deep drawing experiments on the blanks of the same size used
in simulations and compare the results.
2. Material and experimentation
Today steel sheets accounts for more than half the total steel consumed. A large fraction of this is used
in transportation i.e. automobiles.Austenitic Stainless Steel-304 (AISI 304) sheets are being extensively
used in architectural, food industries, sanitary, marine, defense, chemical industry, cryogenic and nuclear
industries etc., and due to its excellent corrosion resistance in seawater environment it is a workhorse
material for marine applications. The composition of AISI 304 is shown in Table1.Due to presence of
Chromium element it improves the oxidation resistance at high temperature and also improves corrosion
resistance, It has a low carbon elements due to which the wear and friction properties are improved and a
lower susceptibility to inter granular corrosion. Austenitic Steel sheets with 1.0 mm sheet thickness in cold
rolled and annealed are used in the present study. The use of AISI 304 steel sheets has important
Production parts for manufacturing the integrated panels and tiny to complex parts, minimizing the number
of joining parts like welding and also decreases the number of steps to form a component. The deep
drawing experiments were carried out on the experimental test rig shown in Fig. 1. This test rig is
speciallydesigned for deep drawing operations which can be performed at elevated temperatures. Complete
punch and die set-up is made with Super alloy to prevent the materials to change dimensions at higher
temperatures. An induction heater is developed to heat the ferrous material maximum up to 3000C-400C.
The set up was so designed while heating the lower die the blank is heated simultaneously with the help of
induction coil wounded around the die. This is done in such a way that the blank and die will maintain
uniform temperature during deep drawing at elevated temperature.

1979

1980

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

Fig. 1 Experimental test rig

Fig. 2 Induction furnace to heat the metal blank.

Table 1 Chemical composition of AISI 304 sheets (in weight %).

Element
Weight
(%)

Fe

Mn

Si

Mo

Co

Cr

Cu

Ni

Other

70.7

0.02

1.14

0.41

0.36

0.21

18.40

0.18

8.19

0.30

This system is designed to heat Iron blanks maximum up to 400C. Besides heating the blank, the lower
die was also heated by providing induction coil around it [Fig.2]. By doing so that when the hot blank is
kept over the dies, it should not develop a thermal shock(the circular blanks are heats up quickly than die,
so dies are heated first than later and to avoid from thermal shocks both blank and die should maintain
uniform temperature). This die gets heated to a predetermined temperature so that drawing process can be
done at a particular temperature. Coolant water is supplied continuously to the heaters of die and blank. A
non contact Pyrometers are used to measure the temperature of the blank during drawing as the area
becomes inaccessible. Pyrometer works on the principle of catching the wave length of the radiation that is
emitted by the any material[12]. The complete test rig is designed for forming operations like deep
drawing, stretching operations etc., but in this investigation new die is specially designed for deep drawing
operations at elevated temperatures is shown in Fig.2. A data acquisition system is used to obtain Punch
load applied to blank, punch displacement, Blank holding Pressure from the hydraulic press and the
computer system with software is connected to obtain graphs like punch load with displacement and blank
holding Pressure and punch displacement. Circular blanks of 1mm thick were made on a wire cut EDM
machine of different diameters. The blanks were made into circular shape of different diameters in the
increment of 2 mm from 60 mm onwards, by using lathe. The die was heateduntil it reaches to the required
temperature. Lubrication was applied at the tool and blank interface so that the friction at the elevated
temperature can be reduced. The blank is heated (as blank gets heated up quicker than the die so the latter is
heated before the former) and placed on the die. Later, the punch is lowered and drawing operation is
performed. The lubrication used for the reduction of friction between die,blank and punch assembly is
molycote. It contains Molybdenum base material which is highly effective at elevated temperature. The
temperature was controlled and prevented from overheating by means of water circulation from the cooling
tower. Deep drawing experiments are conducted for the blanks (60-75mm) diameter range. The maximum
blank diameter which is successfully drawn at room and higher temperature was determined. Through
experiments for both materials it was found out that the maximum limit reached when cup fractured little
above the punch corner radius.LDR at room temperature and at 1500C cups drawn at these temperatures.
Through experiments at room temperature the maximum blank drawn is 65mm and at 150 0C the maximum
blank size is 75mm.

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

3. Finite element simulation

Generally, in any experimentation most of the time is consumed in trial and error methods and involves
a lot of valuable time and money. To overcome this problem, by computer modeling and simulation called
Finite element methods (FEM) is introduced which simulates the actual process and thus saves valuable
time and money. FE simulation techniques evaluates the behavior of components, equipment and structures
for various loading conditions including applied loads, pressures and temperatures. Finite element analysis
is a computational method for predicting how existing object will react to force conditions, heat generations
etc. The analysis of whole structure is obtained by analysing the individual finite elements, having due
regard to their individual positions within the mesh and being totally dependent upon the assistance of an
automatic computer.Many commercial available finite element analysis software like Dynaform,
Hyperform, AbAQUS etc., available to minimize the number of experiments for optimizing the
experimental work.
3.1 Dynaform
A finite element code DYNAFORM with LS-DYNA (solver) is used to simulate the conventional and
warm deep drawing forming processes. This code is used to simulate different types of sheet metal forming
processes like stamping, deep drawing, bending, stretching, etc. and to find the Punch load and
displacement, stress, strain and thickness distributions etc. The effect of varying the design parameters of
forming tools and process parameters on the final component can also be studied.The DYNAFORM-PC
software consists of four programs. These programs represent the pre-processor, post-processor and solver.
They are: DYNAFORM, eta/PostGL, eta/Graph and LS-DYNA. DYNAFORM is the pre-processor of the
software. The models of tools and work pieces are constructed using this software.The input models, such
as die, blank, blank holder andpunch were constructed in pre-processor dynaform. After the surface is
created fine mesh was done to the blank. The Dynaform tooling was show in the Fig.3. In the present work,
Belytschko-Tsay thin shell elements are used for the blank and the tools because of lower computational
time i.e. 4-noded Belytschko-Tsay shell elements take 9 microseconds per element cycle i.e. it consumes
30-50% less processing time than the others [13]. Modeling of blank and tools, Quadrilateral and triangular
shell elements are used. In case of determination of LDR, as the blank size is increased, the number of
elements used will be higher. Material properties of AISI 304 are measured and calculated at different
temperatures on universal testing machine (UTM) are used to run the simulation. The properties of AISI
304 that are calculated at these temperatures Friction in deep drawing under warm conditions can be
reduced by using of molycote as lubricant, which was evaluated by Singh et al [9] at various temperatures.
Barlat 3-parameter yield criteria is selected as the material model at varies temperatures. This material
model uses the lank-ford parameters 00, 450,900to the rolling direction in simulation along with the material
properties and Barlat 3 parameter constants.
Table 2: Limiting drawing ratio at room temperature and elevated temperatures for AISI 304.
S.No
1.
2.
3.
4.

Blank Diameter
(mm)
60
65
70
75

RT
2.0
2.16
---

1500C
Limiting Draw ratio(LDR)
2.0
2.16
2.33
2.50

1981

1982

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

Fig. 3 Discretization of tools in the pre-processor of LS-DYNA

4. Results and discussion

Deep drawing simulations were performed in Dynaform version 5.6.1 with LS-Dyna version 971 solver
for deep drawing at elevated temperature. Material properties of AISI 304 are measured and calculated at
different temperatures on universal testing machine (UTM) are used to run the simulation. The properties
of AISI 304 that are calculated at these temperatures are shown in Table 2. As discussed in simulation
Barlat 3-parameter [14] yield criteria is selected as the material model at varies temperatures. At these
temperatures the material is anisotropic.Deep drawing simulations are performed as per the tooling setup on
blanks of different diameters. Barlat 3-parameter model is used to simulate the process, both at room
temperature and at elevated temperatures. It is primarily because AISI 304 is anisotropy at all the
temperatures considered in the present investigation. Deep drawing simulations were performed in LS
Dyna as per the real conditions. Fig. 4-5 shows the simulated drawn cup from the blanks of 60 and 65 mm
diameter at room temperature conditions and forming limit diagram (FLD) of the cup.

Fig.4 FLD contours in the cup drawn by simulating AISI 304 at

Room temp for 60mm blank.

Fig.5 FLD contours in the cup drawn by simulating AISI 304 at

Room temp for 65mm blank

Fig.6 FLD at a draw ratio more than LDR at room temp i.e 66mm blank. Fig:7 Fractured cup drawn at room temp for 66mm blank.

1983

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

The FLDs indicate the combination of maximum principal surface strains that the blank can withstand
without failure or necking under all possible conditions of the process. The sheet materials which have the
uniform distribution of strains will have a better formability than of the other [15]. All the simulations are
performed at various temperature conditions. Fig. 5-6 shows the drawn cup from the blanks of 65 mm and
66 mm diameter and the FLD of the drawn cup. Thickness of the cup at punch corner is not reduced much
without any necking in drawn cup. Fig. 5 shows that the drawing takes place in the safe zone and no
indications of fracture in the cup walls. At room temperature, when 66 mm blank is drawn the thickness at
punch corner is reduced much and necking is occurring which is not safe and leads to fracture as shown in
Fig: 6 it is shown that the curve is crossing the necking region and further enters into failure zone. This
indicates the fracture is in the sheet material at punch corner radius and the material show the failure at this
condition. It is evident that at the room temperature, maximum of 65 mm diameter blank can be drawn in to
30 mm cup without fracture, so the limiting drawing ratio is 2.16 at room temperature.
Fig.8-11represents the thickness contours and thickness distribution from simulation and also represents the
comparison of the drawn curve from the centre of the cup towards wall region obtained from simulations
and experiments for different blanks at various temperatures under warm conditions. As it can be seen from
this contours thinning takes place at the punch corner radius and also thickness are more uniformly
distributed in the wall region. Especially when there is increase in the temperature but accumulation of
thickness is seen in the simulated cups towards the end of the wall. Increase in the thickness of the drawn
cup wall above 1mm was due to hoop stress (compressive) in radial direction [16].

Thickness(mm)

Fig.8 Acomparison of thickness variation obtained from simulations and experiments for 65mm blank at room temperature.

1.3
1.1

Exp-60mm-Rt

0.9

Sim-60mm-RT

0.7

10

15

20

25

Distance from cup centre(mm)

30

35

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

Thickness(mm)

1984

1.4
1.2
1
Sim-65mm-RT

0.8

Exp-65mm-RT

0.6

10

15
20
25
30
Distance from Cup centre(mm)

35

40

Fig.9A comparison of thickness variation obtained from simulations and experiments for 60mm and65mm blank at Room
Temperature.

Thickness(mm)

Fig.10 Thickness contours in the cup drawn by simulating AISI 304 at 150 0C for 75mm LDR Cup

1.4
1.2
1
0.8

Sim-75mm-150C

0.6
0

10

Exp-75mm-150C
20
30
40
50
Distance from cup centre(mm)

60

Fig.11A comparison of thickness variation obtained from simulations and experiments for 75mm blank at 1500C.

It can be seen in the figures Fig.8-9 that at room temperature for 60mm and 65mm drawn cups, both
experimental and simulation the thickness distribution matches very closely in all the regions of the drawn
cup i.e., cup bottom, punch corner and also in the wall region. At 1500C, thickness is more uniformly
distributed in the wall region primarily because of the lower mean flow stresses.It is seen from the other
contours and the graphs that by increasing the diameter of the blank there is a consistent increase in the
necking slightly above the punch corner radius. It is primarily because when the cold punch corner is in
contact with the work piece material in that region temperature of the blank will decrease and the material
will have more resistance at the necking but beyond that point since there is no thermal shock to the
material. So, necking is experienced in the drawn cups slightly beyond the necking point. But in case of
simulation, there is no such thermal shock and constant blank temperature is considered as the reason there
for a slight variation in the simulation and experimentation results.

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

These experiments confirmed the FE predictions which show that the LDR at room temperature is 2.2. It
can be observed from Figs. 811 that necking in the drawn cup occurred near punch corner. Being a hard
material, the effect of the maximum stress region and convergent on stress contour ratio lines can be seen at
the cup bottom where the thickness of drawn cup was lower than the original sheet thickness (1 mm). Finite
element simulations were performed on the blank of diameter higher than 65 mm at elevated temperatures.
As the temperature was increased, the higher sizes of the blanks can be deep drawn without fracture.
Maximum of 75 mm diameter blank can be deep drawn safely at 1500C as shown in Fig. 11. At the
temperature of 150 C the LDR was 2.5 and there is no further increase in LDR at higher temperature.
These simulated results were experimentally validated and found a good agreement between them. At
elevated temperatures, cups were drawn from the higher size of the blanks without fracture on the
experimental set-up. Due to the increase in temperature; there is a decrease in mean flow stress which
results in increase in the LDR of the sheet. Thickness distribution of experimentally drawn cups at LDR
was compared with simulated cup thickness as shown in Figs. 10 and 11. It was found that there is a good
correlation between them.
6. Conclusions
In this investigation formability of AISI 304 is studied by the theoretically and experimentally of the
deep drawn cups at elevated temperatures. It is observed that the AISI 304 has very good formability. LDR
at room temperature is found to be 2.16 which is better than some of the ductile materials like Aluminum
and Magnesium alloys. Under warm forming up to 1500C the formability of the material is increased but
beyond that not much improvement in drawability is observed. FEM simulations revealed that formability
of AISI 304 increases with the increase in temperature. At low heating temperature only LDR of sheet
metal is found to have increased and the thickness is found to have decreased due to decrease in mean flow
stresses.LDR (2.5) is highest at 1500C with lesser thickness reduction and defect free cups are drawn with
no fracture tendency. It was found that there is a good agreement between predicted and experimental
results. AISI 304 showed improvement in the formability at the temperature range RT-150C. Simulation
results also substantiate the experimental results.
References:
[1] Dieter GE. Sheet metal forming. In: Mechanical metallurgy.3rd ed. UK: McGraw-Hill; 1988. p. 65178
[2]Johnson W. and Mellor P. B., Engineering plasticity, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company London,
1975.
[3] Yoshihara S, Manabe K-i, Nishimura H. Effect of blank holderforce control in deep-drawing process of
magnesium alloy sheet. J Mater Process Technol 2005;170:57985.
[4] Mamalis AG, Manolakos DE, Baldoukas AK. Simulation of sheet metal forming using explicit finite
element techniques: effect of material and forming characteristics. Part 1: Deep-drawing of cylindrical
cups. J Mater Process Technol 1997;72:4860.
[5]J. Gronostajski, A. Matuszak, A. Niechajowicz, Z. Zimniak: The system for sheet metal forming design
of complex parts, J. of Materials Processing Tech., (2004) Vol. 157158, pp. 502507.
[6]Xi Wang, Jian Cao., On the prediction of side wall wrinkling in sheet metal forming processes.
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences. 42 (2000), 2369-2394
[7]P.V.R. Ravindra Reddy, B.V.S.Rao, G.Chandra Mohan Reddy, P. Radhakrishna Prasad, G. Krishna
Mohan Rao, Parametric Studies on Wrinkling and Fracture Limits in Deep Drawing of Cylindrical Cup,
International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering Volume 2, Issue 6, June 2012, P
218-222.
[8]R. Venkat Reddy, Dr T.A. Janardhan Reddy Dr.G.C.M. Reddy Effect of Various Parameters on the
Wrinkling In Deep Drawing Cylindrical Cups International Journal of Engineering Trends and
Technology- Volume3Issue1- 2012 P 53 58.
[9]Swadesh Kumar Singh S, Mahesh K, Kumar A, Swathi M. Understanding formability of extra-deep
drawing steel at elevated temperature using finite element simulation. J Mater Des 2010;31:447884.
[10] Huang F, Tao NR. Effects of strain rate and deformation temperature on microstructures and hardness
in plastically deformed pure aluminum. J Mater SciTechnol 2011;27:17.
[11] Kumar SS, Ravi Kumar D. Effect of process parameters on product surface finish and thickness
variation in hydro-mechanical deep drawing. J Mater Process Technol 2008;204:16978

1985

1986

Lade Jayahari et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 1978 1986

[12] Loesenera O, Neuer G. A new far-infrared pyrometer for radiation temperature measurement on
semitransparent and absorbing materials in an arc-heated wind tunnel. Measurement 1994;14:12534.
[13]John O.Hallquist., Dynaform manual, vo1.01, 1998.
[14] Barlat F, Lian K. Plastic behavior and stretchability of sheet metals. Part I: A yield function for
orthotropic sheets under plane stress conditions. Int J Plast 1989;5:5166.
[15]Pepelnjak T., Petek A: Prediction of material necking in digital environment, Journal for Technology of
Plasticity, Vol. 30, Number 1-2, 13-23, 2005.
[16] Toros S, Ozturk F, Kacar I. Review of warm forming of aluminummagnesium alloys. J Mater
Process Technol 2008;207:112.