Formability Investigations of High-Strength Dual-Phase Steels

Abstract Car manufacturing is always regarded as the key industry behind sheet metal forming, and thus, the requirements of and developments in car manufacturing play a decisive role in the development of sheet metal forming. The automotive industry is faced with contradictory demands and requirements: better performance with lower consumption and less harmful emissions, more safety and comfort; these are extremely difficult to supply simultaneously with conventional materials and conventional manufacturing processes. The fulfillment of these often contradictory requirements is one of the main driving forces in the automotive industry and thus in the material and process developments in sheet metal forming, as well. In recent years, significant developments can be observed in the application of high-strength steels. In this respect, the application of various dual-phase steels is one of the best examples. However, the application of these high-strength steels often leads to formability and manufacturing problems. One formability problem is the springback occurring after sheet metal forming. In the current research, we have dealt mainly with advanced high-strength steels, primarily with dual-phase steels. When applying them, the springback phenomenon is one of the most critical issues. To reduce the tremendous amount of experimental work needed, we also applied numerical simulation using isotropic–kinematic hardening rules. The isotropic–kinematic hardening behavior of a given material in the applied AutoForm numerical package may be characterized with three independent material parameters γ, χ and K (a detailed explanation of their meaning will be given in the main part of this paper). However, we found that the material data included in simulation packages for these new high-strength steels are not fully adequate. For the determination of more reliable material parameters and to achieve better simulation results, a new testing device was developed. Numerical simulations were performed using the material parameters determined by the new device to show the sensitivity of springback behavior to these material parameters.