Hot stamping, which is the hot pressing of special steel sheet using a cold die, can combine ease of shaping with high strength mechanical properties due to the hardening effect of rapid quenching. In this paper, a thermo-mechanical analysis of hot stamping using the finite element method in conjunction with phase transformations was performed in order to investigate the plastic deformation behavior, temperature history, and mechanical properties of the stamped car part. We also conducted a fully coupled thermo-mechanical analysis during the stamping and rapid quenching process to obtain the mechanical properties with the consideration of the effects of plastic deformation and phase transformation on the temperature histories at each point in the part. The finite element analysis could provide key information concerning the temperature histories and the sheet mechanical properties when the phase transformation is properly considered. Such an analysis can also be used to determine the effect of cyclic cooling on the tooling.

Recently, electric vehicles and hybrid cars are being promoted as alternatives to reduce automobile emissions. Generally, thin sheet materials such as aluminum alloy AA300X and cold-rolled steel sheet such as JIS-G-3141 are used for the container for the lithium-ion secondary batteries. In this study, a multi-stage deep drawing process is used to produce a rectangular cup from thin stainless steel sheet material, SUS409L, with an initial blank thickness of 0.4mm for the battery container application. Numerical simulations of the first through the fifth stages for the multi-stage deep drawing with thin SUS409L sheet were conducted using LS-Dyna3D Implicit/Explicit. Special consideration was given to the deformation characteristics due to the normal anisotropy of the sheet material. The numerical simulations were conducted with both isotropic properties and the anisotropic properties of the initial blank material. An unexpected forming failure, barreling in the bottom region of the deep drawn rectangular cup, was observed. This failure mode can be avoided by additional ironing thickness control during the process.

A new finite element model for the hydrostatic extrusion of a biaxial bar is introduced. In this model, a penalty contact algorithm, which is adopted to replace the traction boundary conditions due to the fluid in the container of the extruder, is incorporated into a consistent penalty finite element formulation for the viscoplastic deformation of a work piece during hydrostatic extrusion. Two parameters, introduced in the penalty contact algorithm in this study, a critical penalty contact pressure $P_0$ and a critical penalty contact distance $D_c$, are carefully examined for various process conditions. The proposed finite element model is applied to the hydrostatic extrusion of a Cu-clad Al bar. The extrusion loads and thickness ratios of the clad materials by the proposed model are compared in detail to values from experiments reported in the literature. Finally, it is concluded that the proposed finite element model is useful in practical implementations.

Fiber metal laminates (FMLs) are layered materials comprised of thin metal sheets and fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). This paper presents the numerical study of the formability enhancement of FMLs composed of an aluminum alloy and self-reinforced polypropylene (SRPP) composite. In this study, a numerical simulation based on finite element (FE) modeling is proposed to evaluate the formability of FMLs using ABAQUS/Explicit. The FE model, which included a single layer of solid and shell elements to model the blank, used discrete layers of the solid element with a contact model and shell elements with a friction based model for the aluminum alloy-composite interface conditions. This method allowed the description of each layer of FMLs and was able to simulate the interaction between the layers. It is noted through this research that the proposed numerical simulation described properly the formability enhancement of the FMLs and the simulation results showed good agreement with experimental results.

The spheroidization behavior of cementite in a SK85 high carbon steel was investigated in this study. Fine and coarse pearlite microstructures were obtained by appropriate heat treatments according to the TTT diagram of SK85 high carbon steel. Hot rolled plates of SK85 steel were austenitized at $800^{\circ}C$ for 2 hrs and then put directly into a salt bath at either $570^{\circ}C$ or $670^{\circ}C$ to obtain a fine pearlite (FP) structure and a coarse pearlite (CP) structure, respectively. Cold rolling was subsequently conducted on those specimens with reduction ratios from 0.2 to 0.4. Spheroidization heat treatments were conducted at the subcritical temperatures of 600 and $720^{\circ}C$ for 1 to 32 hrs to elucidate the effect of initial microstructures, heat treatment temperature, and cold reduction ratios on the cementite spheroidization rate. Spheroidization proceeded with fragmentation of cementite plates, spheroidization of the cementite platelets, and coarsening consecutively. Mechanical fragmentation of cementite by cold rolling expedited the rate of spheroidization. The spheroidization rate of FP was much more rapid than that of CP and the spheriodization rate increased with increases in the cold reduction ratio.

High temperature deformation behavior of a heat-resistant duplex stainless steel, used as a retort in the Pidgeon process for Mg production, was investigated in this study. 25Cr-8Ni based duplex stainless steels were cast into rectangular ingots, with dimensions of $350mm{\times}350mm{\times}100mm$. Nitrogen and yttrium were added at 0.3wt.% each to enhance the heat-resistance of the steel. Phase equilibrium was calculated using the thermodynamic software FactSage$^{(R)}$ and the database of FSStel. For comparison, cast 310S steel, a widely used heat-resistant austenitic stainless steel, was also examined in this study. Dilatometry was conducted on the as-cast ingots for the temperature range from RT to $1200^{\circ}C$ and the thermal expansion coefficients were evaluated. The nitrogen addition was found to have an effect on the thermal expansion behavior for temperatures between 800 and $1000^{\circ}C$. High temperature tensile and compression tests were conducted on the ingots for temperatures ranging from 900 to $1230^{\circ}C$, which is the operation temperature employed in Mg production by the Silico-thermic reduction process. The steel containing both N and Y showed much higher strength as compared to 310S.

Vacuum-assisted thermoforming is one of the critical steps for successful application of film insert molding (FIM) to make parts of complex shape. If the thickness distribution of the formed film is non-uniform, then cracking, deformation, warpage, and wrinkling can easily occur at the injection molding stage. In this study, the simulation of thermoforming was performed to predict the film thickness distribution, and the results were compared with experiments. Uniaxial tensile tests with a constant crosshead speed for various high temperatures were conducted to investigate the stress-strain behavior. An instance of yielding occurred at the film temperature of $90^{\circ}C$, and the film stiffness increased with increasing crosshead speed. Two types of viscoelastic models, G'Sell model, K-BKZ model, were used to describe the measured stress-strain relationship. The predicted film thickness distributions were in good agreement with the experimental results.