Numerical Simulation on Edge Crack of Advanced High-Strength Steel Considering Blanking Induced Damage

Sheet metal blanking is an indispensible process for stamping process widely used in automotive industry and home appliances. The damage induced by blanking becomes an important factor that may affect the sheet metal formability and cause edge crack. Conventionally, blanking process is simulated by solid element, while forming processes are simulated by shell element, and it is necessary that the damage legacy data transfer from blanking process simulation to forming process simulation so that the forming processes, especially edge crack can be simulated more accurately. In the present work, a new simulation method is proposed to predict edge crack in stamping of advanced high-strength steels considering blanking history. Blanking simulation is first conducted to obtain residual damage values near the blanked edge area, which will be further mapped onto the shell elements near the blanked edge in forming simulations. Several 3D numerical models of hole-expanding and drawing based on shell element are established to investigate crack during stamping and verified by experiments. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently predict the edge crack more accurately.