On the Optimisation of Superplastic Free Forming Test of an AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Sheet

This paper presents a comparison between a number of different failure prediction methods forsuperplastic forming processes. Attention is limited here to superplastic forming of Ti-6Al-4V at 927C. Thefailure prediction methods considered include the flow localisation factor approach, forming limit curvesbased on void growth models, such as the Rice and Tracey model and the Cocks and Ashby model, and arecently-presented superplastic forming limit diagram (SPFLD) approach. Finite element modelling of theforming process is employed to assess the failure prediction methods and the predicted results are comparedwith available test data.