Failure Prediction of Complex Load Cases in Sheet Metal Forming : Emphasis on Non-Linear Strain Paths, Stretch-Bending and Edge Effects

Sammanfattning: With the increased focus on reducing carbon emissions in today’s society, severalindustries have to overcome new challenges, where especially the automotive industryis under a lot of scrutiny to deliver improved and more environmentallyfriendly products. To meet the demands from customers and optimize vehiclesaerodynamically, new cars often contain complex body geometries, together withadvanced materials that are introduced to reduce the total vehicle weight.With the introduction of the complex body components and advanced materials,one area in the automotive industry that has to overcome these challenges is manufacturingengineering, and in particular the departments working with the sheetmetal forming process. In this process complex body component geometries can lead to non-linear strain paths and stretch bending load cases, and newly introducedadvanced materials can be prone to exhibit behaviour of edge cracks not observedin conventional sheet metals.This thesis takes it onset in the challenges seen in industry today with predictingfailure of the three complex load cases: Non-Linear Strain Paths, Stretch-Bending,and Edge Cracks. Through Finite Element simulation attempts are made to accuratelypredict failure caused by aforementioned load cases in industrial componentsor experimental setups in an effort to develop post-processing methods that are applicableto all cases.