Thermomechanical-Phase Transformation Simulation of High-Strength Steel in Hot Stamping

The thermomechanical-phase transformation coupled relationship of high-strength steel has important significance in forming the mechanism and numerical simulation of hot stamping. In this study a new numerical simulation module of hot stamping is proposed, which considers thermomechanical-transformation multifield coupled nonlinear and large deformation analysis. In terms of the general shell finite element and 3D tetrahedral finite element analysis methods related to temperature, a coupled heat transmission model for contact interfaces between blank and tools is proposed. Meanwhile, during the hot stamping process, the phase transformation latent heat is introduced into the analysis of temperature field. Next the thermomechanical-transformation coupled constitutive models of the hot stamping are considered. Static explicit finite element formulae are adopted and implemented to perform the full numerical simulations of the hot stamping process. The hot stamping process of typical U-shaped and B-pillar steel is simulated using the KMAS software, and a strong agreement comparison between temperature, equivalent stress, and fraction of martensite simulation and experimental results indicates the validity and efficiency of the hot stamping multifield coupled constitutive models and numerical simulation software KMAS. The temperature simulated results also provide the basic guide for the optimization designs of cooling channels in tools.