The purpose of this study is to consider the effects of strain rate on the stress-strain behavior of sheet metal at instability. The results and conclusions obtained as follows ： 1. As the strain rate increases, the fracture pressure increases and the polar height at fracture decreases. 2. The effect of strain rate on forming limit diagram produces a general lowering of the diagram with increasing strain rate but changes according to materials and strain paths. 3. The forming limit diagram predicted by swift instability theory is comparatively inconsistent with the experimental result at high strain rates, because there is inevitable gap between them.