Kerim Isik

Enhancement of Lemaitre Model to Predict Cracks at Low and Negative Triaxialities in Sheet Metal Forming

Advanced high strength steels are still one of the best alternatives for light weight design in the automotive industry. Due to their good performances like high strength and high energy absorption, those steel grades are excellent for body in white components. Because of their restricted ductility, which sometimes leads to the formation of cracks without or low necking during forming operations, conventional forming limit diagrams may fall short. As a remedy, an enhanced variant of the Lemaitre continuum mechanical damage model (CDM) is presented in this work.Previous model extensions of the Lemaitre model improved the damage prediction for the shear and compression dominated stress states by introducing an additional weighting factor for the influence of compression on damage evolution, the so called crack closure parameter h. However, the possible range of the fracture behavior predicted by such models for low and negative stress triaxialities is limited. In this work, the Lemaitre CDM has been enhanced by considering the maximal shear stress to predict the fracture occurrence under shear. Previous models for the effect of void closure on damage evolution are reviewed and a novel model enhancement taking into account the maximal shear stresses is described. The determination of the damage model parameters is presented for a dual phase steel. For this particular material, the response of model enhancement on the failure prediction is discussed for a test part.

Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) Based Local Approach to the Sheet-Bulk Metal Formability Prediction

Since sheet-bulk metal forming processes inherit properties of both sheet and bulk metal forming processes, their analysis requires on one side following certain methods conventionally devised in these process classes analyses whereas on the other side leaving certain customs out. For instance, inherent anisotropy of the rolled sheet has to be taken into account whereas due to non-vanishing out of plane stress component, analysis with thin shells using the plane stress state assumption is no more applicable. Similarly, methods based on necking instabilities, i.e. forming limit diagrams, which are typically used in sheet metal formability assessment; fall short in sheet-bulk metal formability prediction. In the present study, we propose a local approach to fracture, more specifically a phenomenologically based Lemaitre variant CDM model, devised frequently in bulk metal forming analysis, as an alternative. For this purpose, a combined nonlinear isotropic-kinematic hardening plasticity with Hill48 type initial anisotropy is fully coupled with isotropic damage. Together with the concept of effective stress and equivalent strain principle, quasi-unilateral damage evolution is used, where the energetic contribution of the compressive stress state to the damage driving force is scaled with a so-called crack closure parameter, . For the quasi unilateral damage evolution is inactive whereas for it is fully active which completely suppresses the development of damage under compressive stress states. The framework devises state coupling between elasticity and damage and kinematic coupling between plasticity and damage which increases the relative effect of on the eventual damage development. To this end, a direct extension to the finite strains for metal forming analysis is realized using a corotational formulation and the developed framework is implemented as a VUMAT subroutine for ABAQUS Explicit. For evaluation of the predictive capability of the model, teeth forming process results for DC04 reported in Soyarslan et al. 2011, An Experimental and Numerical Assessment of Sheet-Bulk Formability of Mild Steel DC04, Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Vol. 133 6, (2011) S. (061008) 1-9, are used. Mechanical material characterization studies are realized using a hybrid experimental-numerical procedure. This methodology relies on minimizing the difference between the experimentally handled global clamp force demand diagrams and the diagrams from the simulations at the complete range of the experiments involving fracture. As known finite element solutions with softening material models are prone to pathological mesh dependence. For this fact, a crack band method is used where the minimum element size, as a controlling parameter of the localization size, is also fitted through the characterization studies and identically used in the process simulations. The simulations show that a correct prediction of the zone and time of fracture is possible for the selected process whereas since the teeth formation process is mainly a compressive process, once the quasi-unilateral damage development is not used, i.e. for , a premature crack prediction is recorded which is not compatible with the experimental findings.

Failure by fracture in sheet–bulk metal forming

This article investigates the possibility of failure by crack-opening mode III (out-of-plane shearing) in sheet–bulk metal forming processes. The investigation makes use of experimentally and theoretically determined fracture-forming limits of aluminium AA1050-H111 sheets with 1 mm thickness, experimental tests in incremental ploughing with a roll-tipped tool and numerical simulation using a commercial finite element programme. Results show that incremental ploughing of thin sheets with a roll-tipped tool under large indentation depths gives rise to transverse cracks that are triggered at the upper groove surface and propagate downward across thickness along an inclined direction to the sheet surface. In contrast to sheet–metal forming processes that only fail by fracture in crack-opening modes I and II, sheet–bulk metal forming processes present the unique ability of failing in all three possible crack-opening modes, namely, in mode III that is typical of bulk metal–forming processes.

Numerical Investigation of the Incremental Tube Forming Process

As a response to the recent years’ growing demand for innovation in manufacturing processes towards lightweight design in several industrial sectors, a new process, called Incremental Tube Forming (ITF), and a corresponding machine layout have been developed. ITF is a process to manufacture bent tubes with varying cross-sections. During ITF a tube is clamped in a feeding device, which transports the tube through a spinning tool, where the diameter reduction takes place. This stage is followed by a superposed bending process without suppressing continuous feeding. This combination leads to various advantages such as improved tool life with reduced tool forces and improved product accuracy (e.g. springback behavior), as it is shown in various experimental works. This paper presents a complementary numerical treatment of the process using FEA. For this purpose, a 3D model is constructed using ABAQUS/Explicit, where the tube is modeled with conventional shell elements with uniformly reduced integration to avoid shear and membrane locking (S4R), whereas the spinning rolls are modeled as discrete rigid. With this model, the influences of process parameters, such as diameter reduction ratio and tool geometry, are investigated. This helps not only to gain a deeper understanding of the process but also to interpret already gathered experimental data with better precision and, thus establishing a basis for further improvement and optimization of this fairly new process.

Investigations of ductile damage during the process chains of toothed functional components manufactured by sheet-bulk metal forming

Sheet-bulk metal forming processes combine conventional sheet forming processes with bulk forming of sheet semi-finished parts. In these processes the sheets undergo complex forming histories. Due to in- and out-of-plane material flow and large accumulated plastic strains, the conventional failure prediction methods for sheet metal forming such as forming limit curve fall short. As a remedy, damage models can be applied to model damage evolution during those processes. In this study, damage evolution during the production of two different toothed components from DC04 steel is investigated. In both setups, a deep drawn cup is upset to form a circumferential gearing. However, the two final products have different dimensions and forming histories. Due to combined deep drawing and upsetting processes, the material flow on the cup walls is three-dimensional and non-proportional. In this study, the numerical and experimental investigations for those parts are presented and compared. Damage evolution in the process chains is simulated with a Lemaitre damage criterion. Microstructural analysis by scanning electron microscopy is performed in the regions with high mechanical loading. It is observed that the evolution of voids in terms of void volume fraction is strongly dependent on the deformation path. The comparison of simulation results with microstructural data shows that the void volume fraction decreases in the upsetting stage after an initial increase in the drawing stage. Moreover, the concurrent numerical and microstructural analysis provides evidence that the void volume fraction decreases during compression in sheet-bulk metal forming.

Experimental analysis of anisotropic damage in dual-phase steel by resonance measurement

The ductile damage in deformed dual-phase steel sheets (DP600) was investigated based on measurements of the degradation of the direction-dependent Young’s modulus. The study focuses on the material-induced damage anisotropy in such advanced high-strength steel. The elastic properties in the direction of applied loading of the deformed sheets were determined by measuring the resonance frequency of rectangular samples. The material was investigated in the as-delivered condition and after annealing at 220℃ for 48 h. Tensile strains of up to 10% were applied after annealing. Tensile tests were performed in different directions with respect to the rolling direction to determine the evolution of damage in different directions. The comparison of the obtained results with the electron micrographs shows that the damage in the steel sheets occurs in the form of nano and micro damages near the grain boundary and interfaces of phases. The maximum decrease of the Young’s modulus in the transverse direction was observed for the largest applied deformation of 10% tensile strain in the transverse direction. An efficient calculation method to obtain information on the distribution of anisotropy in the plane of the sheet was applied. This calculation method relies on an efficient representation of the material’s texture. In order to assess the influence of texture, the texture was determined experimentally.

Simulation of sheet-bulk metal forming processes with simufact.forming using user-subroutines

In this article, we consider the simulation of sheet-bulk metal forming processes, which makes high demands on the underlying models and on the simulation software. We present our approach to incorporate new modelling approaches from various fields in a commercial simulation software, in our case Simufact.forming. Here, we discuss material, damage, and friction models as well as model adaptive techniques.