Investigation of the hot-stamping process for advanced high-strength steel sheet by numerical simulation

Hot forming is a new way to manufacture complex-shaped components of advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) sheet with a minimum of spring-back. Numerical simulation is an effective way to examine the hotforming process, particularly to determine thermal and thermo-mechanical characteristics and their dependencies on temperature, strain and strain rate. The flow behavior of the 22MnB5 AHSS is investigated through hot tensile tests. A 3D finite element (FE) model of hot-stamping process for the shaped part is built under the ABAQUS/Explicit environment based on the solutions of several key problems, such as treatment of contact between blank and tools, determination of material characteristics and meshing, etc. Numerical simulation is carried out to investigate the influence of blank holder force (BHF) and die gap on the hot-forming process for the shaped part. Numerical results show the FE model is effective in simulation of hot-forming process. Large BHF reduces the amount of spring-back and improves the contact of flange with tools while avoiding cracking of stamped part. Die gap has a considerable influence on the distribution of temperature on side walls; the larger the die gap, higher is the temperature on the sidewall of shaped part.