Effect of Weld Zone and Forming Histories on Crushing Behaviour of Stretch-Formed Domes of Laser-Welded Blanks
摘要
In the present study, a 2 kW CNC-controlled fiber laser facility was utilized to weld extra deep drawing (EDD) steel sheets of 1.2 mm thickness to fabricate similar material combination laser-welded blanks (LWBs) with weld zone (WZ) lying at the center. The LWBs and monolithic EDD steels were subsequently deformed utilizing an indigenously developed stretch forming setup consisting of a hemispherical punch under both lubricated and unlubricated conditions to achieve a similar dome height of approximately 14.10 mm. All these specimens were compressed between two parallel flat platens under a quasi-static crushing speed of 2 mm/min. The compression of the stretch-formed domes initiated with flattening of the hemispherical portion. Later, inward dimpling of hemispherical portion followed by flattening of the conical portion were witnessed. It was found that the load progression during crushing of the lubricated stretch-formed specimens was better than that of the unlubricated specimens. Overall, a 4%–5% increase in the energy absorption and mean crushing load was observed in all the lubricated EDD and LWB specimens in comparison to their respective unlubricated specimens. Moreover, due to the presence of the WZ, the LWBs absorbed 4% more energy than the monolithic EDD steels. The FE model of crushing test was developed, and it was validated that the prediction results were better with incorporation of anisotropy of the sheet metal, WZ properties, and forming histories in terms of effective plastic strain and thickness distribution.