Finite Element Indentation Analysis of Automotive Roof Panel using Ultra Low Carbon Steel with and without Bake Hardening Effect

Abstract

Abstract Ultra-low carbon (ULC) steels, which are lightweight, are used in fabricating steel sheets for many applications, particularly the automobile sector where good formability and surface quality are required. For mechanical properties development reasons, the bake hardening technique of ultra-low carbon (ULC) steels is adopted during the automotive paint baking process at elevated temperature. Automotive outer body with bake-hardenable steel ensure good indentation strength and resistance to fatigue. Usually, the mechanical properties of automotive steels depend both on the chemical composition and thermal treatment. Consequently, the present paper aimed to design a car roof panel using elastic-plastic ULC steel sheet with and without bake hardening. Finite element (FE) analysis was used to predict the static indentation response of automotive roof panels. First of all, the roof panel was modelled via CATIA V5 and evaluated by FE analysis using ABAQUS Software. The results showed that the bake-hardenable steel sheets present a good indentation strength and less plastic deformation.