Effect of Weld Location, Orientation, and Strain Path on Forming Behavior of AHSS Tailor Welded Blanks

Abstract

Use of multiple advanced high strength steel sheets for fabrication of tailor welded blanks (TWBs) is one of the current interests for automotive and steel industries as it reduces manufacturing cost and weight of the vehicle, and also improves the quality of the component. As the varieties of TWB applications are increasing, the effects of the difference in material properties, weld, and its orientation on blank formability have become important both in deep drawing and stretch forming. In this work, high strength low alloy (HSLA) grade steels were laser welded with two different dual phase steels having 980 MPa (DP980) and 600 MPa (DP600) tensile strengths to fabricate two different material combination TWBs (DP980-HSLA and DP600-HSLA). Formability of these two types of TWBs has been studied experimentally both in biaxial and plane strain stretch forming modes by performing limiting dome height (LDH) tests using a 101.6 mm diameter hemispherical punch. Five different weld locations during biaxial-stretch forming mode, and the effect of weld orientation with respect to major principal strain in plane strain stretch forming mode, have been studied. It was found that formability LDH and failure location depended on weld location, and LDH increased when weld line was positioned at the extreme positions away from the center due to more uniform strain distribution on the deformed dome. The welded blanks had lower formability in plane strain deformation mode compared with biaxial-stretch forming mode. However, influence of weld orientation on the formability depended on material combination. Changes in the fracture mode were confirmed from fractography analysis of biaxial, transverse plane strain, and longitudinal plane strain stretch formed samples.