Path-independent stress based forming limit diagrams for anisotropic materials along with the Hill 48 yield function; power law strain hardening and isotropic hardening are derived. Bifurcation analyses via solving equilibrium equations of a pointed vertex on subsequent yield loci are utilized. The presented practical forming limit diagrams (FLSDs) show more acceptable agreements with experimental data compared with those obtained by other methods. A typical neck detection macro in APDL is developed by FEA simulation for a free bulge tube hydroforming to confirm the significant simplicity and straightforwardness of the mentioned FLSD.

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