In-situ study of strain and texture evolution during continuous strain path change

Abstract

Automotive stamping is a multi-stage process where a sheet material is drawn in first stage and then redrawn, flanged and pierced in subsequent stages. In the first draw stage, continuous strain path change is induced in the material while a discontinuous strain path change occurs when the material is processed in the subsequent stages of a multi-stage stamping operation. The strain path transition can potentially alter the forming limit of the material. Previous research has investigated the effect of the discontinuous mode of strain path change by loading the sample in one strain path, unloading it, then reloading it in a second path. Thus, discontinuous strain path change was obtained. In this work, the effect of continuous strain path change was investigated with a novel experimental design that allowed cruciform samples to change strain path continuously without unloading. The work was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the design of the cruciform sample was verified with finite element modelling to ensure the occurrence of continuous strain path change and this was validated experimentally using DX54 material by capturing full-field strain measurements data using digital image correlation technique. The size of the experimental apparatus permitted it to be placed inside a scanning electron microscope chamber. In the second stage, the validated test method was used to evaluate microstructural changes during the deformation including full-field strain and texture evolution. The micro-strain evolution showed rotation of strain bands while the texture evolution conveyed grain rotation during continuous strain path change.