An uncoupled ductile fracture criterion for a wide range of stress states in sheet metal forming failure prediction

•A new uncoupled DFC is proposed for a wide range of stress states.•Compared the proposed criterion with the DF2016 criterion and Hu criterion.•Comparative studies with simulated and experimental results of cupping of AA 6061.•3D fracture locus of AA 6061 is constructed successfully by the proposed DFC.•The new DFC can be utilized for predicting fracture behavior in sheet metal forming. In industrial production, sheet metal rupture will inevitably occur in the process of forming, especially in the shape of complex, relatively small thickness of the sheet. It is vital to accurately predict the failure of ductile metals under various working conditions. To deal with the problem, an uncoupled ductile fracture criterion (DFC) for a broad range of stress states is proposed based on the micro-mechanism of ductile fracture of metals, which redefines the relationship between the number of void nucleating and the equivalent plastic strain and takes into account the different deformation modes of the voids in the growth stage. Then, in order to verify the validity and advantages of the proposed DFC, the 3D fracture surface of AA 2024-T351 and AISI 1045 steel are constructed by the new criterion based on their fracture data under various stress states, and compared with the commonly used DF2016 criterion and Hu criterion. The prediction results show that the new criterion is better than them, both in terms of the maximum prediction error and the average prediction error. Furthermore, to further prove the effectiveness of the proposed model, five samples are designed for tension tests to calibrate the new DFC using a hybrid experimental–numerical approach, and the calibrated criterion is applied to cupping simulations of AA 6061 and compared with cupping experimental results. The results indicate that the Erichsen cupping number (IE) of the cupping simulation and experiment are 6.88 mm and 7.05 mm, respectively, and the error between them is only 2.411 %, and the location of the fracture is also basically the same. Therefore, all comparison results show that the proposed DFC can forecast the fracture problem in sheet forming more accurately under various stress states.