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A computation tool for hydroforming prediction using an inverse approach (IA) has been developed. This approach is based on the method proposed by Guo et al. [1], however it has been extended to tube hydroforming problems in which the initial shape is not flat but is a round tube subject to internal pressure and axial feeds [2]. Although the inverse method tool is a stand-alone code, it has been linked to the Marc code for meshing purposes and visualization of results. In this paper, a finite element analysis of an extruded AA 6061-T4 tube submitted to free hydroforming conditions is carried out using the IA code. The results are in good agreement with those obtained by an incremental approach. However, the computational time in the inverse procedure is much less than that in the incremental method.

Recently, several studies conducted by automotive industry revealed the tremendous advantages of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS). TRansformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steel is one of the typical representative of AHSS. This kind of materials exhibits high strength as well as high formability. Analyzing the crack behaviour in TRIP steels is a challenging task due to the microstructure level inhomogeneities between the different phases (ferrite, bainite, austenite, martensite) that constitute these materials. This paper aims at investigating the fracture resistance of TRIP steels. For this purpose, a micromechanical finite element model is developed based on the actual microstructure of a TRIP 800 steel. Uniaxial tensile tests on TRIP 800 sheet notched specimens were also conducted and tensile properties and R-curves (Resistance curves) were determined.

The strain-induced diffusionless shear transformation of retained austenite to martensite during straining of transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) assisted steels increases strain hardening and delays necking and fracture leading to exceptional ductility and strength, which are attractive for automotive applications. A novel technique that provides the retained austenite volume fraction variation with strain with improved precision is presented. Digital images of the gauge section of tensile specimens were first recorded up to selected plastic strains with a stereo digital image correlation (DIC) system. The austenite volume fraction was measured by synchrotron X-ray diffraction from small squares cut from the gage section. Strain fields in the squares were then computed by localizing the strain measurement to the corresponding region of a given square during DIC post-processing of the images recorded during tensile testing.

This paper is the second in the series of documents designed to record the progress of a series of SAE documents - SAE J2836™, J2847, J2931, & J2953 - within the Plug-In Electric Vehicle (PEV) Communication Task Force. This follows the initial paper number 2010-01-0837, and continues with the test and modeling of the various PLC types for utility programs described in J2836/1™ & J2847/1. This also extends the communication to an off-board charger, described in J2836/2™ & J2847/2 and includes reverse energy flow described in J2836/3™ and J2847/3. The initial versions of J2836/1™ and J2847/1 were published early 2010. J2847/1 has now been re-opened to include updates from comments from the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), Smart Grid Architectural Committee (SGAC) and Cyber Security Working Group committee (SCWG).

This paper presents two methods of characterizing and describing the formability of tailor welded blanks (TWB). The first method involves using miniature tensile specimens, extracted from TWB weld material, to quantify mechanical properties and material imperfection within TWB welds. This technique combines statistical methods of describing material imperfection together with conventional M-K method modeling techniques to determine safe forming limit diagrams for weld material. The second method involves the use of an extended M-K method modeling technique, which places multiple material thickness and material imperfections inside one overall model of TWB performance. These methods of describing TWB formability and their application to specific aluminum TWB populations are described.

Diesel particulate samples were collected from a light duty engine operated at a single speed-load point with a range of biodiesel and conventional fuel blends. The oxidation reactivity of the samples was characterized in a laboratory reactor, and BET surface area measurements were made at several points during oxidation of the fixed carbon component of both types of particulate. The fixed carbon component of biodiesel particulate has a significantly higher surface area for the initial stages of oxidation, but the surface areas for the two particulates become similar as fixed carbon oxidation proceeds beyond 40%. When fixed carbon oxidation rates are normalized to total surface area, it is possible to describe the oxidation rates of the fixed carbon portion of both types of particulates with a single set of Arrhenius parameters. The measured surface area evolution during particle oxidation was found to be inconsistent with shrinking sphere oxidation.

An axisymmetric finite element model is generated to simulate the windshield glass damage propagation subjected to impact loading of a flying object. The windshield glass consists of two glass outer layers laminated by a thin poly-vinyl butyral (PVB) layer. The constitutive behavior of the glass layers is simulated using brittle damage mechanics model with linear damage evolution. The PVB layer is modeled with linear viscoelastic solid. The model is used to predict and examine through-thickness damage evolution patterns on different glass surfaces and cracking patterns for different windshield designs such as variations in thickness and curvatures.

This paper examines the effects of failure modes on the static strength and total energy absorption of aluminum spot-welded samples using experimental, statistical, and analytical approaches. The main failure modes for aluminum spot welds are nugget pullout and interfacial fracture. Two populations of aluminum spot welds were studied. Within each population, coupon configurations of lap shear, cross tension and coach peel were considered. Thirty replicate static strength tests were performed for each coupon configuration. The resulted peak load and energy absorption level associated with each failure mode was studied using statistical models. Next, an analytical model was developed to determine the failure mode of an aluminum resistance spot weld based on stress analysis. It is found that weld size, sheet thickness, and level of weld porosity and defects are the main factors determining the cross tension failure mode for an aluminum spot weld.

In this paper, results of finite element crash simulation are presented for a TRIP steel side rail with and without considering the phase transformation during forming operations. A homogeneous phase transformation model is adapted to model the mechanical behavior of the austenite-to-martensite phase. The forming process of TRIP steels is simulated with the implementation of the material model. The distribution and volume fraction of the martensite in TRIP steels may be greatly influenced by various factors during forming process and subsequently contribute to the behavior of the formed TRIP steels during the crushing process. The results indicate that, with the forming induced phase transformation, higher energy absorption of the side rail can be achieved. The phase transformation enhances the strength of the side rail.

This paper examines the effects of fusion zone size on failure modes, static strength and energy absorption of resistance spot welds (RSW) of advanced high strength steels (AHSS). DP800 and TRIP800 spot welds are considered. The main failure modes for spot welds are nugget pull-out and interfacial fracture. Partial interfacial fracture is also observed. The critical fusion zone sizes to ensure nugget pull-out failure mode are developed for both DP800 and TRIP800 using the limit load based analytical model and the microhardness measurements of the weld cross sections. Static weld strength tests using cross-tension samples were performed on the joint populations with controlled fusion zone sizes. The resultant peak load and energy absorption levels associated with each failure mode were studied using statistical data analysis tools. The results of this study show that the conventional weld size of can not produce nugget pull-out mode for both the DP800 and TRIP800 materials.

This paper examines some key aspects of the manufacturing process that “ Transformation Induced Plasticity” (TRIP) steels would be exposed to, and systematically evaluate how the forming and thermal histories affect final strength and ductility of the material. We evaluate the effects of in-service temperature variations, such as under hood and hot/cold cyclic conditions, to determine whether these conditions influence final strength, ductility and energy absorption characteristics of several available TRIP steel grades. As part of the manufacturing thermal environment evaluations, stamping process thermal histories are included in the studies. As part of the in-service conditions, different pre-straining levels are included. Materials from four steel suppliers are examined. The thermal/straining history versus material property relationship is established over a full range of expected thermal histories and selected loading modes.

In this paper, a microstructure-based three-dimensional (3D) finite element modeling method is adopted to investigate the effects of porosity in thin-walled high pressure die-cast (HPDC) magnesium alloys on their ductility. For this purpose, the cross-sections of AM60 casting samples are first examined using optical microscope and X-ray tomography to obtain the general information on the pore distribution features. The experimentally observed pore distribution features are then used to generate a series of synthetic microstructure-based 3D finite element models with different pore volume fractions and pore distribution features. Shear and ductile damage models are adopted in the finite element analyses to induce the fracture by element removal, leading to the prediction of ductility.

The Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies supports research to enable high-efficiency diesel engines to meet future emissions regulations, thus clearing the way for their use in light trucks as well as continuing as the most efficient powerplant for freight-haulers. Compliance with Tier 2 emission regulations for light-duty vehicles will require effective exhaust emission controls (aftertreatment) for diesels in these applications. Diesel-powered heavy trucks face a similar situation for the 2007 regulations announced by EPA in December 2000. DOE laboratories are working with industry to improve emission control technologies in projects ranging from application of new diagnostics for elucidating key mechanisms, to development and evaluation of prototype devices. This paper provides an overview of these R&D efforts, with examples of key findings and developments.

The CRC Fuels for Advanced Combustion Engines working group has worked to identify a matrix of research diesel fuels for use in advanced combustion research applications. Nine fuels were specified and formulated to investigate the effects of cetane number aromatic content and 90% distillation fraction. Standard ASTM analyses were performed on the fuels as well as GC/MS and1H/13C NMR analyses and thermodynamic characterizations. Details of the actual results of the fuel formulations compared with the design values are presented, as well as results from standard analyses, such as heating value, viscosity and density. Cetane number characterizations were accomplished by using both the engine method and the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT™) apparatus.

Due to mismatch of the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of various layers in the PEN (positive/electrolyte/ negative) structures of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), thermal stresses and warpage on the PEN are unavoidable due to the temperature changes from the stress-free sintering temperature to room temperature during the PEN manufacturing process. In the meantime, additional mechanical stresses will also be created by mechanical flattening during the stack assembly process. In order to ensure the structural integrity of the cell and stack of SOFC, it is necessary to develop failure criteria for SOFC PEN structures based on the initial flaws occurred during cell sintering and stack assembly.

This paper presents development of a multi-scale material model for a 980 MPa grade transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steel, subject to a two-step quenching and partitioning heat treatment (QP980), based on integrated computational materials engineering principles (ICME Model). The model combines micro-scale material properties defined by the crystal plasticity theory with the macro-scale mechanical properties, such as flow curves under different loading paths. For an initial microstructure the flow curves of each of the constituent phases (ferrite, austenite, martensite) are computed based on the crystal plasticity theory and the crystal orientation distribution function. Phase properties are then used as an input to a state variable model that computes macro-scale flow curves while accounting for hardening caused by austenite transformation into martensite under different straining paths.

The NOx reduction performance under lean conditions over γ-alumina was evaluated using a micro-reactor system and a non-thermal plasma-equipped bench test system. Various alumina samples were obtained from alumina manufacturers to assess commercial alumina materials. In addition, γ-alumina samples were synthesized at Caterpillar with a sol-gel technique in order to control alumina properties. The deNOx performances of the alumina samples were compared. The alumina samples were characterized with analytical techniques such as inductively coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectroscopy, temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and surface area measurements (BET) to understand physical and chemical properties. The information derived from these techniques was correlated with the NOx reduction performance to identify key parameters of γ-alumina for optimizing materials for lean-NOx and plasma assisted catalysis.

In this paper, the microstructure-based finite element modeling method is used in investigating the loading path dependence of formability of transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels. For this purpose, the effects of different loading path on the forming limit diagrams (FLD) of TRIP steels are qualitatively examined using the representative volume element (RVE) of a commercial TRIP800 steel. First, the modeling method was introduced, where a combined isotropic/kinematic hardening rule is adopted for the constituent phases in order to correctly describe the cyclic deformation behaviors of TRIP steels during the forming process with combined loading paths which may include the unloading between the two consecutive loadings. Material parameters for the constituent phases remained the same as those in the authors' previous study [ 1 ] except for some adjustments for the martensite phase due to the introduction of the new combined hardening rule.

Limited room temperature formability hinders the wide-spread use of high strength aluminum alloys in body parts. Forming at warm temperatures or from softer tempers are the current solutions. In this work, our approach is to start with age-hardened sheets from 7xxx and 6xxx family of alloys and improve their formability using local thermomechanical processing only in the regions demanding highest ductility in the forming processes. We achieved local formability improvements with friction stir processing and introduce another process named roller bending-unbending as a concept and showed its feasibility through finite element simulations. Initial results from FSP indicated significant deformation in the processed zones with minimal sheet distortion. FSP also resulted in dynamically recrystallized, fine grained (d < 5 μm) microstructures in the processed regions with textures significantly different from the base material.

Macroscopic constitutive behaviors of aluminum 5052-H38 honeycombs under dynamic inclined loads with respect to the out-of-plane direction are investigated by experiments. The results of the dynamic crush tests indicate that as the impact velocity increases, the normal crush strength increases and the shear strength remains nearly the same for a fixed ratio of the normal to shear displacement rate. The experimental results suggest that the macroscopic yield surface of the honeycomb specimens as a function of the impact velocity under the given dynamic inclined loads is not governed by the isotropic hardening rule of the classical plasticity theory. As the impact velocity increases, the shape of the macroscopic yield surface changes, or more specifically, the curvature of the yield surface increases near the pure compression state.