Experimental and theoretical analysis of the limits to ductility of type 304 stainless steel sheet

The forming behaviour of type 304 stainless steel sheet has been investigated. The strain-hardening behaviour has been characterised in uniaxial tension tests, and the forming limits at necking and at fracture have been determined using the Marciniak punch test. The results, complemented by measurements of the fraction of martensite formed by plastic straining, have been compared with the predictions derived from the constitutive laws proposed by Iwamoto and Tsuta [Iwamoto, T., Tsuta, T., 2000. Computational simulation of the dependence of the austenitic grain size on the deformation behaviour of trip steels. Int. J. Plasticity 16, 791–804; Iwamoto, T., Tsuta T., 2002. Computational simulation on deformation behaviour of CT specimens of trip steel under mode I loading for evaluation of fracture toughness. Int. J. Plasticity 18, 1583–1606] for steels exhibiting transformation induced plasticity, and from a flow localisation analysis developed along the lines of the model of Marciniak and Kuczinski [Marciniak, Z., Kuczynski, K., 1967. Limit strains in the processes of stretch-forming sheet metal. Int. J. Mech. Sci. 9, 609–620]. A good account of the whole results can be obtained by considering the limits to ductility imposed by ductile fracture.