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In the ULSAB Project released in 1998, high strength steels (HSS) were applied to 90 percent of the body and structural components, and a mass saving of 25 percent compared to an average of benchmark vehicles was achieved. In the ULSAB-Advanced Vehicle Concepts (AVC) Project, high strength steels are used for most of the components, but many of these materials are identified as ultra high strength steel (UHSS) grades of advanced high strength steels. These grades include dual phase (DP) from 280 MPa yield (YS) to 1000 MPa tensile (UTS), complex phase (CP) 700/800 MPa (YS/UTS), and martensitic (Mart) 1200 MPa and 1520 MPa (UTS) grades. This paper reviews how these materials are applied to specific parts of the ULSAB-AVC Class-C and Class-PNGV vehicle concepts and the reasons for their selection. It also compares the materials used in the body structures of ULSAB and ULSAB-AVC

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been successfully used in the simulation of sheet metal forming process. The accurate prediction of the springback is still a major challenge due to its sensitivity to the geometric modeling of the tools, strain hardening model, yield criterion, contact algorithm, loading pattern, element formulation, mesh size and number of through-thickness integration points, etc. The objective of this paper is to discuss the effect of numerical parameters on springback prediction using dynamic explicit FEA codes. The example used in the study is from the Auto/Steel Partnership High Strength Steel Rail Springback Project. The modeling techniques are discussed and the guidelines are provided for choosing numerical parameters, which influence the accuracy of the springback prediction and the computation cost.

Forming and strain rate effects on crashworthiness of automotive body components were investigated in this study. Dynamic tensile tests were carried out to establish the stress-strain relationships at elevated strain rates. Dynamic tests of bending and axial crashing at various speeds were conducted using a stamped hat square column. The experimental results indicate that the absorbed energy of the hat square column decreased with the increase of material thinning in case of high strength steels. FEM analyses using material models with both strain rate sensitivity and forming effects were carried out to evaluate the computer prediction accuracy of crashworthiness.

The goal of ULSAB-Advanced Vehicle Concepts (AVC) is to develop a platform with the highest number of shared parts possible between two vehicle classes -European C-Class and the North American PNGV-Class concepts. Aggressive targets for mass and safety are considered --all the while maintaining affordable cost and achieving safety goals anticipated for 2004 and beyond. The objective of the CAE analysis of crashworthiness for ULSAB-AVC is to analyze and optimize the vehicle structure to provide the opportunity for development of complete vehicles that will obtain excellent star ratings. This paper will discuss crash safety and crash energy management aspects of the ULSAB-AVC, including important considerations for selecting advanced high-strength steels for crashworthiness applications, body-in-white design and materials selection procedures, BIW concept design and major load paths, and performance against crashworthiness targets.

Mechanical properties of as-rolled steels used in a vehicle vary with many parameters including gages, steel suppliers and manufacturing processes. The residual forming and strain rate effects of automotive components have been generally neglected in full vehicle crashworthiness analyses. Not having the above information has been considered as one of the reasons for the discrepancy between the results from computer simulation models and actual vehicle tests. The objective of this study is to choose the right material property for as-rolled steels for stamping and crash computer simulation, and investigate the effect of forming and strain rate on the results of full vehicle impact analyses. Major Body-in-White components which were in the crash load paths and whose material property would change in the forming process were selected in this study. The post-formed thickness and yield stress distributions on the components were estimated using One Step forming analyses.

Laminated steel sheets sandwiched with a polymer core are increasingly used for automotive applications due to their vibration and sound damping properties. However, it has become a major challenge in finite element modeling of laminated steel structures and forming processes due to the extremely large differences in mechanical properties and in the gauges of the polymer core and the steel skins. In this study, circular cup deep drawing and V-bending experiments using laminated steels were conducted in order to develop a modeling technique for laminate forming processes. The effectiveness of several finite element modeling techniques was investigated using the commercial FEM code LS-Dyna. Furthermore, two production parts were selected to verify the modeling techniques in real world applications.

This paper deals with the effects of various approaches for modeling of strain rate effects for mild and high strength steels (HSS) on impact simulations. The material modeling is discussed in the context of the finite element method (FEM) modeling of progressive crush of energy absorbing automotive components. The characteristics of piecewise linear plasticity strain rate dependent material model are analyzed and various submodels for modeling of impact response of steel structures are investigated. The paper reports on the ranges of strains and strain rates that are calculated in typical FEM models for tube crush and their dependence on the material modeling approaches employed. The models are compared to the experimental results from drop tower tests.