Numerical and experimental studies of single-stroke bumper forming using high-strength steel and laminate sheets

Abstract

This work is to assess whether car bumpers can be formed using single-stroke pressing instead of conventional double-stroke pressing. Some basic characteristics of the car bumper forming process are also clarified. An incremental elasto-plastic finite-element method is used to simulate a bumper forming process using high-strength steel and laminate sheets under the plane strain condition. Simulations clearly demonstrate the processes involved in single-stroke forming. A three-layer steel/polymer/steel laminate developed for vibration-damping in an automobile bumper is also tested to demonstrate how shear defects occur between the two skin steel layers along the entire length of the laminate sheet in simulation. The springback phenomenon resulting from the elastic recovery is observed in simulations of the final bumper shape. Accordingly, experiments for high-strength steel sheet were performed to verify the numerical simulation and to investigate how process geometry conditions affect the springback angle, which is an essential consideration when assessing and controlling the final bumper shape in practice. This work improves understanding of the bumper forming processes used in the automotive industry.