Predicting tensile stretchability of trimmed AA6111-T4 sheets

An integrated manufacturing process simulation framework has been developed to predict the trimmed edge tensile stretchability of AA6111-T4 sheets by incorporating the burr geometry, damage, and plastic strain from trimming simulations into subsequent tensile stretchability simulations. The influence of the trimming die clearances on the predicted tensile stretching ductility (stretchability) is studied and quantitatively compared with experimental measurements. Stretchability is found to decrease with increasing cutting clearances, and simulation results have successfully captured experimentally observed edge crack initiation and failure mode variations for different trimming clearances. Subsequent computational sensitivity studies reveal that while deburring of previously trimmed edges has little influence on tensile stretchability, removal of trimmed edge initial plastic strain may significantly enhance the subsequent trimmed edge stretchability.