Simulating inhomogeneous deformations for improved surface quality

Duration

Start: 01-02-2016
End: 31-01-2020

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Description

Recently the automotive industry has switched to using thin paint layers to remove environmental pollution. As a result, the surface quality of the steel substrate after stamping operations becomes a critical factor for the highly formable sheet steels. The occurrence of upper and lower yield points (discontinuous yielding) in the stress-strain behavior leads to inhomogeneous deformations and inhomogeneous microstructures after forming operations which affect both the appearance as well as the strength of the final product.The research aims at developing a physically based thermomechanical constitutive model in a Finite Element framework which will predict such inhomogeneous deformations in sheet forming processes. Such information will help the industry to understand the effects of strain and microstructure inhomogeneity on the surface quality and adopt appropriate measures in the process to produce satisfactory products.