Simulation Aspects for the Application of High Strength Steel Materials in Forming Processes

High-strength, cold-formable steels offer great potential for meeting cost and safety requirements in the auto industry. In view of strengths of up to 1200 MPa now attainable, some aspects need to be analyzed and evaluated in advance when designing with these materials. In addition to early assessment of crash properties, it is also highly important to design the forming process to match the material potential. To address the material potential by simulation a complete row of different tasks has to be fullfilled. At first the selection of usefull experiments in combination with robust interpretation methods and the complete effort of transfering the real values into the virtual simulation world. Some aspects of testing and data interpretation will be discussed with resprect to high strength steels. For example, the forming and failure behavior of AHSS steels is not described only by the forming limit curve or thinning. The design of cut edge regions in combination with evaluation methods also has a significant impact on the part and tool design. Different experiments and interpretations allow a better understanding of forming limits and possible work arounds. Some advices are given how to handle cut edge failure in forming simulations an the need for further improvement in this field. The presentation gives an overview of the process started at TKSE to characterize not only the fracture behavior of newly developed materials and to use the information in customer-relevant FE material models.