Damage Evolution of Hot Stamped Boron Steels Subjected to Various Stress States: Macro/Micro-Scale Experiments and Simulations

Abstract

Hot stamping components with tailored mechanical properties have excellent safety-related performance in the field of lightweight manufacturing. In this paper, the constitutive relation and damage evolution of bainite, martensite, and mixed bainite/martensite (B/M) phase were studied. Two-dimensional representative volume element (RVE) models were constructed according to microstructure characteristics. The constitutive relations of individual phases were defined based on the dislocation strengthening theory. Results showed that the damage initiation and evolution of martensite and bainite phases can well described by the Lou-Huh damage criterion (DF2015) determined by the hybrid experimental–numerical method. The calibrated damage parameters of each phase were applied to the numerical simulation, followed by the 2D RVE simulations of B/M phase under different stress states. To study the influence of martensite volume fraction (Vm) and distribution of damage evolution, the void nucleation and growth were evaluated by RVEs and verified by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Three types of void nucleation modes under different stress states were experimentally and numerically studied. The results showed that with the increase of Vm and varying martensite distribution, the nucleation location of voids move from bainite to martensite.