Crack deviation during trimming of aluminium automotive sheets

Crack propagation and deviation during trimming of aluminium sheet metal have been analysed experimentally and modelled by a finite element analysis (FEA). The experimental results may be summarized as follows. Two crack propagation mechanisms operate in aluminium sheet metal, i.e. either between adjacent voids or by multiple coalescence of micro-cracks. A fracture process-zone may be identified for both mechanisms. Outside this fracture process-zone, no damage is observed. The particular crack propagation mechanism does not influence the crack path. A mechanical model based on a two steps analysis is presented. In the first step, the overall stress strain field prior to cracking is determined by an explicit Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulation based FEA. In the second step, dedicated to crack propagation, no remeshing is used. A cumulative damage model based on the equivalent plastic strain increment is shown to be very efficient. The damage variable is interpreted as bifurcation in the direction of the maximum plastic strain rate. Finally, the applications show the possibility of trimming aluminium sheet metal without sliver generation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.