A strategy for minimizing the computational time of simulations involving near-surface embossing of sheet metal materials

Abstract

Abstract. By near-surface embossing, work hardening can be introduced into sheet metal blanks, thus increasing the material´s yield strength. Hence, this property-modifying process can be used to improve the lightweight potential of a component on the one hand and its crash performance on the other. For the early design of such embossing or forming processes and to predict the modification of the material properties, FE modelling is currently used. Here, the embossing of the near-surface structures is usually simulated first, followed by the forming process. However, existing simulation methods are time-consuming and computationally intensive, due to the simulation of the whole embossing process. For this purpose, this paper presents two approaches for improving the simulation time of embossing and forming processes. Compared to the conventional holistic embossing and forming simulation, these approaches are based on a new mapping strategy and experimental data. In the mapping variant, solid elements’ stress and strain distribution is mapped to shell elements, thus including the embossing history for the forming simulation. For the experimental-based variant, the yield curves of embossed tensile tests are determined and used to approximate the property changes in the simulation. Both concepts are compared with each other and the conventional simulation method in terms of accuracy and calculation time. This paper finally shows that simulation can be performed faster with the new approaches than with the current sequential modelled workflow.