International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 487–494

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmatool

Adaptive FEM simulation for prediction of variable blank holder

force in conical cup drawing
Z.Q. Sheng, S. Jirathearanat, T. Altan

Engineering Research Center for Net Shape Manufacturing (ERC/NSM), The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Received 20 April 2003; received in revised form 25 September 2003; accepted 5 November 2003

Abstract

Fracture and wrinkling are two primary failure modes in deep drawing of sheet metal parts. Previous studies showed that prop-
erly selected variable blank holder force (BHF) profile, i.e. variation of BHF with punch stroke, can eliminate these failures to
draw deeper parts. In this study, an adaptive simulation strategy was developed to adjust the magnitude of the BHF continuously
during the simulation process. Thus, a BHF profile is predicted in a single process simulation run and the computation time is
reduced. The proposed strategy has been applied successfully to two conical cup drawing operations. The predictions have been
compared with experiments and the results indicate that the adaptive simulation strategy can also be used to improve the drawing
process for forming non-symmetric parts.
# 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Adaptive simulation; Feedback control; FEM; Blank holder force; Sheet metal forming

1. Introduction or segmented blank holder can be used to obtain a

In deep drawing, the quality of the formed part is
affected by the amount of metal drawn into the die cav-
ity. Excessive metal flow will cause wrinkles in the part,
while insufficient metal flow will result in tears or splits.
The blank holder plays a key role in regulating the
metal flow by exerting a predefined blank holder force
(BHF) profile. When selected properly, this BHF pro-
file can eliminate wrinkles and delay fracture in the
drawn part [1,2].
Usually, in deep drawing, a constant BHF is applied
over the punch stroke. During the drawing process, the
state of stress in the deforming material changes signifi-
cantly. Consequently, the process conditions that
reduce wrinkling and fracture also change. To take into
account these changes, it is reasonable that the BHF
should also be modified to increase the formability of
the drawn part [2]. To further improve the formability
when drawing complex or asymmetric parts, an elastic


Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-614-292-5063; fax: +1-614-292-
7219.
E-mail address: altan.1@osu.edu (T. Altan).
0890-6955/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2003.11.001
non-uniform BHF over the part flange area. Thus, it is
possible to account for variations of the metal flow
over different locations of the blank holder surface
[2,3].
A good variable BHF profile is usually determined
by conducting time-consuming FEM simulations or
experimental trials [4]. For simple part geometries, the
variable BHF profiles can be predicted analytically [5].
However, so far, most analytically predicted BHF pro-
files have not correlated well with experimental obser-
vations [4]. An efficient method for predicting variable
BHF profiles is to use a closed-loop controlled FEM
simulation. In this method, the forming process is
simulated, and a control strategy suggests appropriate
BHF levels based on the part formability predicted at
any given time step in the process simulation. Thus, the
BHF is continuously adjusted during the drawing oper-
ation and a desired BHF is obtained in a single FEM
simulation.
Hardt et al. [7,8] implemented a closed-loop control
to regulate BHF in order to stabilize the drawing pro-
cess. Sim and Boyce [6] applied the method introduced
in [7] to drawing process simulation. They determined
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a BHF profile for a round cup drawing through a

closed-loop controlled simulation system. Cao and
Boyce [9] applied a similar method to predict a variable
BHF profile for conical cup drawing and increased the
failure-free drawing depth of a conical cup over that
obtained with a constant BHF profile. In their method,
major principal strains and amplitudes of wrinkles
occurring at the die radius were used as state variables
for adjusting BHF. Thomas [4] also devised a closed-
loop controlled FEM system to predict variable BHF
profiles that improve the drawability of a round cup
and a rectangular pan. In his method, the punch load,
binder gap, maximum strain, and maximum stress were
treated as state variables.
In the present study, a feedback controlled ‘‘adaptive
simulation’’ strategy, which is similar to the closed-
loop strategy used in [9,13], is developed and integrated
into PAM-STAMP, a commercial FEM code (Fig. 1).
The objective is to determine a feasible BHF profile in
a single FEM simulation.
Similar to Cao and Boyce’s work [9,13], in which
strains and flange wrinkle amplitudes are used as con-
trol indices, this present control algorithm utilizes
maximum part thinning and flange wrinkle, as well as
sidewall wrinkle amplitudes calculated at every simula-
tion time step. With these values as state variables, a
proportional plus integral (PI) controller algorithm is
used to adjust the BHF. The algorithm is designed to
regulate the BHF to the minimum required levels just
enough for suppressing wrinkling conditions corre-
sponding to each time control step over the entire
punch stroke. With the minimum BHF applied, more
sheet material can be drawn into the die cavity, thus
increasing drawability.
In this study, two conical cup geometries were selec-
ted to verify the proposed adaptive simulation method:
(a) conical cup from steel used at the ERC/NSM
(Fig. 2) and (b) a smaller conical cup from Al alloy
used by Cao and Boyce [9] (Fig. 8).
Fig. 2. Geometry of steel conical cup tooling used at ERC/NSM.
Dd ¼ 158:2 mm, Dp ¼ 88:9 mm, Rd ¼ 16 mm, Rp ¼ 20 mm, Db ¼
248 mm.
2. Defect detection
Wrinkling and fracture are the major failure modes
or defects encountered in deep drawn parts. The pro-
posed adaptive simulation method attempts to elimin-
ate fracture by applying the BHF at the minimum level
necessary for suppressing the wrinkles. Thus, stretching
is minimized and fracture is postponed.
2.1. Wrinkling detection
Wrinkling is affected by many factors, such as pro-
cess parameters, contact condition, mechanical proper-
ties, and geometry of the blank. In FEM simulation,
wrinkles can be predicted by [11]: (1) a bifurcation
analysis of a perfect structure [12] or a non-bifurcation
analysis employing initial imperfections [13]; (2) an
analysis of the incremental second-order energy [14];
and (3) a geometrical method, which directly measures
wrinkle dimensions of the deformed mesh [4,9,15]. In
this study, the geometrical method is adopted. The
flange wrinkle amplitude (FAM) is measured from the
gap distance between blank holder surface and die
addendum surface (Fig. 3). The sidewall wrinkle ampli-
tude (SAM) is measured by considering part cross-sec-
tions cut by planes perpendicular to the forming
direction [15].

Fig. 1. Feedback controlled simulation system; adaptive simulation

flow chart. (Note: SAM ¼ sidewall wrinkle amplitude; FAM ¼ Fig. 3. Determination of sidewall wrinkle amplitude (SAM) and
flange wrinkle amplitude; see Fig. 3.) flange wrinkle amplitude (FAM) in FEM simulation of a conical cup.
 Z.Q. Sheng et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 487–494 489

Based on observations of both simulations and

experiments in conical cup drawing, the most serious
sidewall wrinkle is usually located at 25% cup depth
(see Fig. 3). Therefore, in this study, the largest SAM
occurring at this cup location is used to represent the
severity of the sidewall wrinkle. Based on literature
[4,9], the critical wrinkle amplitudes for determining
the existence of a flange wrinkle and a sidewall wrinkle
are chosen to be at 5% and 20% of nominal sheet
thickness, respectively. These critical wrinkle ampli-
tudes, however, would be different for different parts
depending on the part functionality.

2.2. Fracture detection

An extensive literature review on this topic can be

found in [4,15]. Generally, fracture can be predicted by:
(1) strain based criteria, e.g. forming limit diagrams
(FLDs) [16,17] and maximum part thinning [4]; (2)
stress based criteria, e.g. forming limit stress diagrams
(FLSDs) [18]; and (3) ductile damage criteria, e.g. the
Cockroft and Latham criterion [19].
Thinning in the part wall is commonly used in indus-
try to indicate probability of fracture [4]. Therefore, in
the present study, we also selected wall thinning as a
fracture criterion. This procedure is an approximate
method because the critical maximum thinning is affec-
ted by strain paths. Nevertheless, the thinning criterion
is still useful and effective in estimating the occurrence
of fracture in most deep drawing operations.
3. Control strategy
The control strategy proposed in this study tries to
maintain the wrinkle amplitude at an acceptable level
by automatically adjusting the BHF at each control
time step. It is well known that the tendency of flange
wrinkles to occur is highest at the initial drawing stage
[20]. Therefore (see Fig. 4), the current control strategy
begins with flange wrinkle control and later switches to
sidewall wrinkle control. The switching of the control
strategy can be done by comparing the wrinkle tend-
ency indicators Ifw and Isw for flange and sidewall wrin-
kle, respectively (Eqs. (1) and (2)). Once Isw > Ifw ,
sidewall wrinkle control becomes active. The maximum
thinning Tmi on the part wall is monitored at each con-
trol time step and treated as an on–off switch for the
BHF control (see b in Eq. (3)). Also, once the part
maximum thinning Tmi exceeds a predefined critical
thinning value Tm cri , the simulation will be terminated.
FAMi  FAMi1
Ifw ¼ ; ð1Þ
FAMi1
SAMi  SAMi1
Isw ¼ ; ð2Þ
SAMi1
Fig. 4. Flowchart of adaptive strategy (at one control time step).
where FAMi is the flange wrinkle amplitude at the ith
step, FAMi1 is the flange wrinkle amplitude at the
i1th step, SAMi is the sidewall wrinkle amplitude at
the ith step, and SAMi1 is the sidewall wrinkle ampli-
tudes at the i1th step.
In the adaptive simulation, a PI mode feedback con-
troller algorithm is applied to determine changes in
BHF needed for keeping the wrinkle amplitude at the
desired value. The sampling period for the proposed PI
controller is at every control time step (i.e. 1000 simu-
lation steps, around punch travel of 0.3 mm). The vari-
ation of BHF is calculated using Eqs. (3) and (4):
,!
Xi
BHFiþ1 ¼ BHFi þ b
Kp
Dei þ Dej l ð3Þ
j¼ilþ1
and
Dei ¼ SAMi  SAMc or FAMi  FAMc ð4Þ
where BHFi is the BHF for the current (ith) step, BHFiþ1
is the BHF for the next (iþ1th) step, FAMc is the critical
flange wrinkle amplitude (5% nominal sheet thickness),
SAMc is the critical sidewall wrinkle amplitude (20%
nominal sheet thickness), Kp is the proportional gain, l is
the length of integral time, and b is the coefficient for the
thinning control.
When Dei < 0, and the thinning rate (i.e. Tmi  Tmi1 ,
change of maximum thinning during one control time
step) is lower than a certain value (i.e. 0.001), b¼ 0;
otherwise, b¼ 1. The physical meaning of b¼ 0 is that
the BHF stays the same for the next control time step
only when the wrinkle amplitude is lower than the criti-
cal value and the cup wall is not being thinned.
490 Z.Q. Sheng et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 487–494
From Eq. (3), it can be seen that once the detected
wrinkle amplitude value exceeds the critical value, the
BHF is increased for eliminating this deviation, thus
suppressing the wrinkles back to the critical amplitude
value. If the detected wrinkle amplitude should become
less than the critical value, the BHF may be decreased
or maintained the same, depending on the thinning rate
(i.e. b), to let the wrinkles grow back to the critical
amplitude value.
4. Implementation
The adaptive simulation method has been imple-
mented. A controller subroutine was coded and inte-
grated into PAM-STAMP (explicit FEM code). At
each control time step, the defects in the part being
formed are detected and treated as state variables in
the feedback control loop for calculating changes of
BHF as discussed above. The program has been veri-
fied by drawing two conical cup geometries: a conical
cup from AKDQ steel (see Fig. 2), and another from
Al alloy [9].
4.1. Drawing a conical cup from AKDQ steel
The proposed adaptive simulation method is applied
to predict a BHF profile that improves the drawing of
a conical cup, investigated at ERC/NSM.
4.1.1. Simulation model
Due to symmetry, only one quarter of the tooling
and the part are modeled (see Fig. 5). Simulation
inputs are listed in Table 1. An elastic–plastic material
model with isotropic hardening is considered. High
friction coefficients are used in the simulation to reflect
Fig. 5. FE model used for drawing the conical cup from AKDQ
steel.
Table 1
Circular blank dimensions, material properties, and friction coeffi-
cients used in the simulation of drawing the conical cup from AKDQ
steel
Material AKDQ steel
Blank diameter 248 mm/9.7 in.
Blank thickness 0.86 mm/0.034 in.
Flow stress (MPa) r ¼ 795ð0:0052 þ eÞ0:2
Friction coefficient Punch/blank, 0.25; binder/blank,
0.15; die/blank, 0.15
the dry interface condition that was present in the
experiments. These values were recommended by pre-
vious investigations [1].
4.1.2. Failure criteria
A maximum thinning of 25%, flange wrinkle ampli-
tude of 0.05 mm, and sidewall wrinkle amplitude of
0.16 mm are used as the critical fracture and critical
wrinkle amplitude criteria. The PI controller algorithm
adjusts the BHF profile such that the sidewall wrinkle
amplitude of 0.16 mm and flange wrinkle amplitude of
0.05 mm are maintained while the maximum thinning
of the drawing part is lower than 25%, throughout the
drawing simulation.
4.1.3. Control constants
The initial values of the control constants Kp and l
of Eq. (3) are determined by a sensitivity analysis on
effect of the BHF on the wrinkling amplitudes [21]. In
the sensitivity analysis, two simulations with different
constant BHFs are conducted and the average wrinkle
amplitudes in the two simulations are calculated. Initial
proportional gains (Kpf init for flange wrinkle control,
Kps init for sidewall wrinkle control) are ratios of the
BHF difference to the difference of the average wrinkle
amplitudes (average flange wrinkle amplitude for FAM
control and average sidewall wrinkle amplitude for
SAM control) (see Eqs. (5), (6)). An initial value for
f s
the integration length (linit for flange wrinkle and linit
for sidewall wrinkle) is calculated by the average
wavelengths of the variation of the wrinkle amplitude
control errors (Dei ¼ SAMi  SAMc for sidewall
wrinkle or Dei ¼ FAMi  FAMc for flange wrinkle),
in one simulation with a constant BHF. By conduct-
ing two simulations with constant BHFs of 18 and
17.2 kN, the initial control constants are determined
at Kpf init ¼ 3:6 kN=mm, Kps init ¼ 18:3 kN=mm, linit f
¼
s
4:5 and linit ¼ 6:4 control time steps, respectively. Then,
the magnitudes of the control constants are varied until
a stable BHF profile is predicted through a few trial
adaptive simulation runs. For sidewall wrinkle control,
Kp ¼ 3 kN=mm and l ¼ 5 control time steps. For the
flange wrinkle control, Kp ¼ 2 kN=mm and l ¼ 5 con-
 Z.Q. Sheng et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 487–494 491

trol time steps.

jBHF1  BHF2 j
Kpf ¼  ð5Þ
init FAM1  FAM2 

jBHF1  BHF2 j
Kps ¼  ð6Þ
init SAM1  SAM2 

4.1.4. Variable BHF profile

Fig. 6 shows the variable BHF profile predicted by
adaptive simulation, compared with the optimum con-
stant BHF profile, determined in this study [21]. Using
the variable BHF profile, the cup is formed up to 47
mm depth without any failures (according to the speci- Fig. 7. Comparison of thinning distribution of cups formed with the
fied wrinkle and fracture criteria). Compared with the optimum constant BHF and the predicted variable BHF at the draw-
ing depth of 43 mm (simulation results).
cup formed with the optimal constant BHF, this repre-
sents an increase of 9% in cup depth. According to the
specified maximum thinning of 25%, with the constant from Fig. 9 that the trend of variable BHF profile pre-
BHF the cup could be drawn up to 43 mm depth. dicted by the adaptive simulation is in agreement with
The simulation results showed that the wall thinning that predicted by Cao and Boyce [9]. Towards the end
distribution is also improved by applying the variable of the punch stroke, the BHF profile predicted by the
BHF profile. Fig. 7 compares the wall thinning dis- adaptive simulation rapidly increases (indicating an
tributions of the cups formed to a drawing depth of 43
mm with both variable and constant BHF profiles. It is
seen that the part thinning reduces not only at the
punch nose area, but also at other locations through-
out the cup wall.

4.2. Drawing a conical cup from Al alloy

An adaptive simulation is also conducted to predict

a BHF profile for increasing the draw depth of Al alloy
conical cup discussed in [9] (see geometry in Fig. 8).
The simulation inputs are listed in Table 2.
By applying the proposed adaptive simulation, a
variable BHF profile is predicted (Fig. 9). The failure
criteria applied in this case are maximum strain of 0.16
for fracture, sidewall wrinkle amplitude of 0.16 mm [9],
and flange wrinkle amplitude of 0.05 mm [4]. It is seen

Fig. 6. Variable BHF profile versus punch stroke predicted by

adaptive simulation. Fig. 8. Al alloy cup geometry [9].
492 Z.Q. Sheng et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 487–494

Table 2
Blank dimensions, material properties, and friction coefficients used
in the simulation of drawing a conical cup from Al alloy [9]

Material AL2008-T4
Blank diameter 158.76 mm/6.25 in.
Blank thickness 1.03 mm/0.041 in.
Flow stress (MPa) r ¼ 528e0:265 [10]
Friction coefficient Punch/blank, 0.25; binder/blank,
0.15; die/blank, 0.15

Fig. 10. The experimental BHF profiles.

interface conditions. The variable BHF profile was sim-

Fig. 9. Predicted optimum variable BHF profiles for the Al alloy
cup geometry.
attempt to suppress growing sidewall wrinkles), while
Cao’s BHF decreases. This is because Cao’s controller
[13] switched from the wrinkle amplitude control to the
strain control scheme towards the end of the stroke.
5. Experiments
Experiments were conducted to draw the AKDQ
steel conical cups (Fig. 2) using both the optimum con-
stant BHF and the predicted variable BHF profile
(Fig. 6). The blank material and dimensions are the
same as those used in the simulation (Table 1). No
lubrication was applied on the sheet, to achieve dry
plified and input into the control of the 160 ton
hydraulic press used for conducting the experiments
(Fig. 10, plot A). Due to the press control character-
istics, the BHF profile output exhibits a time delay
(plot B). All the experiments were repeated three times.
As expected, based on the simulation results, the cup
formed with the constant BHF up to 43 mm depth
shows a visible necking area at the bottom corner,
while the variable BHF profile successfully formed the
cup up to 47 mm depth (see Fig. 11). In addition to the
increase in obtainable cup depth, the improved part
quality can be confirmed by measuring the wall thin-
ning (Figs. 12 and 13). Maximum cup thinning of 31%
was obtained by using the constant BHF, while
maximum thinning was reduced to 26% when the vari-
able BHF profile was applied.
Figs. 12 and 13 show the predicted and measured
thinning distributions along the radial curvilinear dis-
tance of the conical cups. The predictions agree, in gen-
eral, with measurements. The discrepancies observed
may be due to inaccurate values of friction coefficients
used in the simulations.

Fig. 11. Conical cups formed from AKDQ steel (experiments).

 Z.Q. Sheng et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 44 (2004) 487–494
Fig. 12. Comparison of thinning distribution in AKDQ steel conical
cups formed with the optimum constant BHF.
Fig. 13. Comparison of thinning distribution in AKDQ steel conical
cups formed with the optimum variable BHF profile.
6. Conclusions
From this study, it can be concluded that the pro-
posed adaptive simulation method can predict an
‘‘optimum’’ variable BHF profile for drawing conical
cups. This BHF profile can improve the formability of
the conical cup drawing process, i.e. increasing (a) the
failure-free drawing depth, and (b) the uniformity of
the wall thinning distribution.
The proposed method can be further improved to
determine nearly optimum BHF profiles for drawing
more complex parts, such as rectangular pan or non-
symmetric automotive stampings. This will be investi-
gated in the future.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by USAMP-AMD 301 and
the ERC/NSM. The authors gratefully acknowledge
this support.
493
The authors would also like to thank the ESI group
for providing PAM-STAMP 2000 and the subroutine
development library.
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