Fig. 5.

3 Stress and strain of the blank during deep drawing

1. Flange zone.

In this zone, the material undergoes tensile stress 1 in radial direction and
compressive stress 3 in tangential direction. If a blank holder were used, the
compressive stress 2 would exist in this zone due to the action of the blank holder.
The strain state in this zone is triaxial with tensile strain in two directions and
compressive strain in one direction. This is the main deformation zone. As the
drawing proceeds, the absolute values of the stress and strain change continuously,
resulting in the non-homogeneous distribution of the thickness and hardness of the
workpiece.

2. Die fillet zone.

As same as in the flange zone, the material in this zone under-goes tensile stress 1
in radial direction and compressive stress 3 in tangential direction. Furthermore, the
material in this zone undergoes compressive stress 2 caused by pressing and
bending of the die fillet. This is the transitional zone. The material in this zone is
stretched and thinned due to bending and sliding when passing over the die fillet
zone. There is a little bit compressive deformation in the tangential direction also.
3. Straight-wall zone.

The drawing force is transferred to the flange through this zone. Because the stress
2 in the thickness direction is equal to zero, this zone is in the plane strain state.
Therefore the tangential stress 3 (the intermediate stress) is equal to half of the
axial stress, that is 3 = 1/2.

4. Punch fillet zone

This is also a transitional zone. The material in this zone undergoes radial tensile
stress 1 as well as tangential tensile stress 3. At the same time, there is
compressive stress 2 in the thickness direction due to the pressing and bending by
the punch. In this zone, the material a little bit upward to the fillet (point a in Fig. 5.4),
is situated between the punch and the die during the initial stage of drawing. There is
only a little material to be transferred in this zone. The percentage deformation is
small, the percentage work hardening is low, and there is no beneficial friction effect.
As a result, the point a often becomes the weakest place of the whole drawn
workpiece. Usually the cross-section through the point a is called critical section. If
the percentage deformation is very large, fracture or severe thinning phenomenon
may occur at this place.

Fig. 5.4 Variation of hardness and thickness of the drawn workpiece along
the height direction

5. Bottom zone.

The material in this zone is in the plane tensile state. Because of the friction
confinement at the punch fillet zone, both the stress and strain of the material in the
bottom zone are small. The thickness variation before and after drawing is usually
about 1~3% and can be neglected.