Correlation of microstructure, tensile properties and hole expansion ratio in cold rolled advanced high strength steels

Abstract

The demand for advanced high strength steels (AHSS) with higher strengths is increasing in the automotive industry. While there have been major improvements recently in the trade-off between ductility and strength, sheared-edge formability of AHSS remains a critical issue. AHSS sheets exhibit cracking during stamping and forming operations below the predictions of forming limits. It has become important to understand the correlation between microstructure and sheared edge formability. The present work investigates the effects of shearing conditions, microstructure, and tensile properties on sheared edge formability. Seven commercially produced steels with tensile strengths of 1000 ± 100 MPa were evaluated: five dual-phase (DP) steels with different compositions and varying microstructural features, one trip aided bainitic ferrite (TBF) steel, and one press-hardened steel tempered to a tensile strength within the desired range. It was found that sheared edge formability is influenced by the martensite in DP steels. Quantitative stereology measurements provided results that showed martensite size and distribution affect hole expansion ratio (HER). The overall trend is that HER increases with more evenly dispersed martensite throughout the microstructure. This microstructure involves a combination of martensite size, contiguity, mean free distance, and number of colonies per unit area. Additionally, shear face characterization showed that the fracture and burr region affect HER. The HER decreases with increasing size of fracture and burr region. With a larger fracture and burr region more defects and/or micro-cracks will be present on the shear surface. This larger fracture region on the shear face facilitates cracking in sheared edge formability. Finally, the sheared edge formability is directly correlated to true fracture strain (TFS). The true fracture strain from tensile samples correlates to the HER values. HER increases with increasing true fracture strain.