1. Introduction
With increasingly strict requirements for lightweight and crashworthiness in the automotive manufacturing industry, an increasing number of aluminum alloy and advanced high-strength steel blanks are widely used [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6]. However, sheet metals usually exhibit serious anisotropic behavior during the forming process and are subjected to various stress states such as uniaxial tension (UT), uniaxial compression (UC), equi-biaxial tension (EBT), near-plane strain (NPS), and simple shear (SS) [
7,
8]. These complex plastic deformation behaviors pose a grand challenge in the development of high-fidelity constitutive models. Nevertheless, establishing a high-precision constitutive model that can characterize typical stress states and anisotropic behavior is still a main research interest in the field of plastic forming.
To date, researchers have already proposed various anisotropic constitutive models. Hill [
9] proposed the famous quadratic anisotropic yield criterion based on the von Mises isotropic yield criterion, which has become one of the most widely used yield criteria due to its simple expression and ease of calculation [
10]. Considering the poor ability of the secondary yield criterion to describe the plastic deformation behavior of sheet metals, especially aluminum alloys, Barlat and Lian [
11] developed the Barlat89 yield criterion. With the demand for accurate predictions of more mechanical properties, Barlat et al. [
12,
13] have successively established the yield criteria of Balat94 and Balat96. However, the convexity of the yield criterion cannot be guaranteed, which limits their application. To solve the above issue, Barlat et al. [
14] proposed the Yld2000-2d yield criterion applicable to the plane stress state by introducing a fourth-order linear operator to the Cauchy stress tensor. Because Yld2000-2d can describe the anisotropic behavior of blanks more accurately, it has become one of the most widely used advanced yielding criteria in industry and academia. Subsequently, Barlat et al. [
15] proposed the Yld2004-18p yield criterion applicable to three-dimensional stress states, which effectively predicted the phenomenon of six or eight earings appearing in deep drawing tests of cylindrical cups for blanks with strong anisotropy. However, due to the large amount of experimental data and complex calculation process required for calibrating parameters, they have not been widely used in industry. Distinguishing from the linear transformation approach, Banabic et al. [
16] developed the BBC2005 yield criterion by adding anisotropy parameters in Hershey1954, which can accurately predict the shape of the yield surface. Cazacu and Barlat [
17] constructed an orthotropy yield criterion based on the
J2- and
J3-based Drucker frameworks using the theory of the representation of tensor functions, which can accurately describe the plastic anisotropic behaviors of AA6016-T4 and AA2093-T3. Another anisotropic form of the Drucker yield function was introduced through linear transformation tensor [
18], which is implemented into Ansys LS-DYNA as *Mat_263 with four ductile fracture criteria developed by the same authors. Meanwhile, to reduce the input of experimental data, Khalfallah et al. [
19,
20] further proposed a simplified calibration program for the CB2001 yield criterion and verified the effectiveness of the newly developed parameter identification strategy through simulation analysis of cross-shaped deep-drawn cup and tube hydroforming experiments. Lou et al. [
21] introduced a reduced Yld2004 function under associate flow rule to model anisotropic plastic behavior both in strength and plastic deformation for spatial and plane stress loading conditions. Recently, Lee et al. [
22] coupled quadratic S-Y2009 with non-quadratic Hosford72 and proposed the CQN2017 yield criterion, which can describe the yield stresses anisotropy of blanks under the non-associated flow rule (non-AFR). Inspired by CQN2017, Hu et al. [
23] further coupled the fourth-order polynomial yield criterion with the Hosford isotropic yield criterion under the associated flow rule (AFR), which can accurately describe the anisotropic behavior of materials; even for blanks with strong plastic flow anisotropy, it can provide accurate prediction levels. Chen et al. [
24] proposed another form of the CQN function by coupling the quadratic S-Y2009 function with the non-quadratic Drucker function to achieve higher computation efficiency with similar accuracy. Hou et al. [
25] further replaced the coupling function based on stress components with the coupling function based on stress invariants.
However, most of the yield criteria mentioned above cannot describe the asymmetric yield behavior under tension and compression of materials. Spitzig et al. [
26] and Spitzig and Richmond [
27] found that the UT yield behavior of aluminum alloys and steels was influenced by superimposed hydrostatic pressure. Therefore, Stoughton and Yoon [
28] developed a quadratic asymmetric yield criterion to describe the strength differential (SD) effect of AA2008-T4 and AA2090-T3 aluminum alloys. To seek a yield criterion suitable for describing the anisotropic behavior of HCP structure, Cazacu and Barlat [
29] modified the even-form Drucker1949 yield criterion to an odd-form one and proposed the CB2004 yield criterion that uses the invariants of the stress deviator to characterize the asymmetric yield behavior of materials. Subsequently, Cazacu et al. [
30] further developed the CPB06 yield criterion containing a fourth-order linear operator. To improve the flexibility of CPB06 in describing plastic anisotropy, Plunkett et al. [
31] and Li et al. [
32] added additional linear transformation tensors to the CPB06 yield criterion and established CPB06ex2 and M_CPB06 yield criteria. Khan et al. [
33] proposed a new method to describe the SD effect by using the Lode angle parameter, which can describe the tension–compression asymmetry individually. Lou et al. [
34] modified the Yld2000-2d yield criterion to accurately describe the asymmetric yield behavior of aluminum alloys by introducing the first stress invariant. Yoon et al. [
35] and Lou et al. [
36] developed two asymmetric yield functions in a form of three stress invariants. Furthermore, Hou et al. [
37,
38,
39] improved the KB93 and Min2016 yield criteria under the non-AFR, which can describe the tension–compression asymmetry of yield stresses and
r-values, respectively. Hu and Yoon [
40] simplified the expression of the Yoon2014 yield criterion by analyzing the transformation tenors on the deviatoric stress invariants, which achieved the analytical calibration of anisotropic parameters while retaining the traditional model’s ability to describe the SD effect. Hu et al. [
41] established a more flexible asymmetric yield criterion by reconstructing LHY2013 and verified its accuracy based on FCC and HCP materials. Recently, Lou and Yoon [
42] proposed a Lode-dependent asymmetric–anisotropic (LAA) framework by analyzing the correspondence between stress triaxiality and normalized third deviatoric stress invariant under uniaxial and equi-biaxial stress states, which can accurately predict the asymmetric behavior of yield stresses and
r-values with a 45° increment under uniaxial loading paths.
To accurately describe the dominant plasticity behaviors under SS and NPS stress states, Vegter et al. [
43] optimized the exponents of the Yld2000-2d and Yld2004-18p yield criteria based on interpolation methods, which filled the gap in traditional calibration methods for predicting the mechanical properties of SS and NPS stress states. Similarly, Du et al. [
44] accurately predicted the normal and diagonal planes yield loci of AA6016-T4, AA5182-O, MP980, and DP490 blanks by incorporating NPS yield stresses along the 0°, 45°, and 90° directions into the calibration of anisotropy parameters and exponents of BBC2008. To address the issue of insufficient accuracy in describing plastic flow under NPS loading paths, Hou et al. [
45] further introduced the directions of plastic strain rate along the 0°, 45°, and 90° directions in the NAFR-Poly4 yield criterion to calibrate the anisotropy parameters of the plastic potential function. In addition, it is worth noting that the Yld2000-2d yield criterion can accurately predict the plastic deformation behavior under corresponding stress states when identifying anisotropic parameters through NPS or SS mechanical properties, but it cannot describe both stress states simultaneously [
46]. Therefore, He et al. [
47] improved the Yld2000-2d yield criterion by introducing a shear-related additional term to enhance the flexibility of the Yld2000-2d, while ensuring the accuracy of describing biaxial tensile (BT) stress states, it can effectively predict anisotropic yield and plastic flow near the SS stress states. Recently, Hu et al. [
48] proposed a more flexible Analytical Poly6-18p yield function based on the Analytical Poly6-16p yield criterion, which not only achieved accurate modeling of SS stress along the 45° direction but also incorporated SS stress along the 0° direction into the modeling category.
In summary, considering that existing constitutive models usually cannot accurately describe the anisotropic behavior of blanks under various typical loading conditions such as UT, UC, EBT, NPS, and SS, in this work, the Eyld2000-2d yield criterion was improved to a new model, i.e., the A-Eyld2000-2d yield criterion, that can describe the SD effect by introducing hydrostatic pressure. Meanwhile, to more effectively control the yield locus of the sheet metals, the mathematical constraint that the exponent m is a constant value was removed by increasing NPS yield stresses during the parameter calibration process. Through experimental data measured under UT, UC, SS, and BT stress states, the differences in describing the anisotropic yield and plastic flow of AA6016-T4, AA5754-O, DP980, and QP980 using the new model with different parameter identification strategies were systematically evaluated. Subsequently, the new model employing the best parameter identification strategy was compared with four commonly used asymmetric yield criteria, i.e., CPB06, LHY2013, S-Y2004, and Hu & Yoon2021, to further verify the validity and applicability of the new model. Finally, the influence of different hardening concepts on the prediction accuracy of yield criteria in describing the evolving plastic behavior of sheet metals was discussed.