Xiaohong Q. Gayden

Tensile-Shear Forces and Fracture Modes in Single and Multiple Weld Specimens in Dual-Phase Steels

In this article, weld fracture criteria based upon low strain rate (i.e., e ∼ 10 -3 -10 -2 s -1 ) tensile-shear tests of spot welds in dual-phase (DP) steels DP600, DP780, and DP980 are developed. Three empirical equations are inferred from least-squares root-fitting analyses of tensile-shear testing data. Building upon existing results in the literature, the first equation relates the tensile-shear force to the weld diameter. The second and third equations relate, respectively, a critical weld diameter and a critical tensile-shear force for interfacial fracture to the sheet thickness and hardness extrema in the heat-affected zone. These idealized equations can serve as the basis for further development of fracture criteria resembling material flow laws that account for higher strain rates and more complicated deformation paths. The effect of spot-weld placement in specific patterns or arrays on deformation and fracture behavior was also investigated to explore underlying effects from deformation field interactions between adjacent spot welds.

Investigation of Forming Performance of Laminated Steel Sheets Using Finite Element Analyses

Laminated steel sheets have been used in automotive structures for reducing in‐cabin noise. However, due to the marked difference in material properties of the different laminated layers, integrating laminated steel parts into the manufacturing processes can be challenging. Especially, the behavior of laminated sheets during forming processes is very different from that of monolithic steel sheets. During the deep‐draw forming process, large shear deformation and corresponding high interfacial stress may initiate and propagate interfacial cracks between the core polymer and the metal skin, hence degrading the performance of the laminated sheets. In this paper, the formability of the laminated steel sheets is investigated by means of numerical analysis. The goal of this work is to gain insight into the relationship between the individual properties of the laminated sheet layers and the corresponding formability of the laminated sheet as a whole, eventually leading to reliable design and successful forming p...