Development of a heterogeneous microstructurally based finite element model for the prediction of forming limit diagram for sheet material

Four major local microstructural parameters (local strength difference and the volume fraction of soft and hard phases) involved in the heterogeneous models are studied by the Taguchi method[12] to determine their individual contribution to the calculated forming limit strain. A number of heterogeneous finite element models have been developed to treat the effect of local microstructure (i.e., texture, grain size, particle distributions, etc.) on the forming limit strains.