Measuring forming limit strains with digital image correlation analysis

Digital image correlation (DIC) analysis methods can provide very accurate strain measurement that is useful for identifying the onset of localized necking and thus determining the forming limit strains of sheet metals. Several different DIC procedures to establish a forming limit diagram (FLD) are compared including both position dependent and time dependent measurement methods where the latter is found to be more accurate for an Al–Mg–Si alloy. Since FLD standards are still being developed to include DIC methods, a new DIC-based time dependent measurement method for the forming limit strains is proposed in this research: (1) Surface topography is extracted from the DIC data and changes in surface height difference are obtained, of the test specimen; (2) The onset of localized necking is identified by the limit of stable flow of the surface height difference or the first derivative of the surface height difference near the development of a local neck when using the Marciniak test procedure. Compared to existing methods, this new procedure more accurately defines the onset of necking and the boundary of safe deformation of an FLD.