Experimental Waviness Evolution of Interstitial Free - IF Steel Sheet under Biaxial Stretching

The purpose of present study is to present experimental results and a mathematical model for the evolution of surface waviness parameters with plastic strain of Interstitial Free - IF steel sheet under uniaxial and biaxial stretching tests. Roughness and waviness are very important quality parameters to be evaluated in sheet metal forming. Various waviness profile parameters such as the arithmetic average waviness Wa, the total height peak-valley waviness Wt, maximum peak height Pp and maximum valley depth Pv were measured during uniaxial and biaxial tests. Tensile test specimens at 0º, 45º and 90º to the direction of rolling and Nakazima type specimens of IF steel were fabricated. After preparing the test specimens, incremental simple tensile and Nakazima biaxial tests with flat punch were performed to characterize the negative and positive quadrant of the Map of Principal Surface Limit Strains, MPLS, of IF steel sheet. Measurements of waviness parameters of the specimen surface at incremental plastic strain stages were performed at the same surface site. Also, during the uniaxial and biaxial tests, the following plastic strains were calculated from printed circular mesh at each incremental step: ε1longitudinal major strain and ε2transverse minor strain. From these data, curves of waviness parameters versus equivalent strain were plotted to obtain a phenomenological equation of 4th or 3rd degree polynomial type. Furthermore, the growth rates of Wa and Wt parameters with the equivalent plastic strain were assessed. From the growth rate curves, it was possible to verify how the sheet thickness imperfections evolves during straining, being possible to predict the influence of plastic strain on the waviness values of IF steel sheets. From the analysis of Wa and Wt growth rates during straining, it was possible to proposed a criteria for the onset of local necking or limit strains in the MPLS. The waviness parameters Wt is the best for characterizing the onset of local necking in sheet metal forming.

Strain-Path Effects on the Formability Behavior of Interstitial-Free Steel

In this work, the formability behavior of Interstitial-Free (IF) steel sheet, grade DC07 with 0.65 mm of nominal thickness, was evaluated by means of both linear and bi-linear strain-paths to define the Forming Limit Curve (FLC) at the onset of necking according to ASTM E22182 standard. In the first strain-path, flat-bottomed punch with 200 mm diameter and 10 mm corner die radius was adopted together with counter-blanks of an IF steel sheet grade DC07 with 0.80 mm nominal thickness in order to yield two equal amounts of plastic work under uniaxial tension and under equibiaxial stretching strain-paths. Afterwards, Nakajima’s 100 mm hemispherical punch stretching procedure and bulge tests were adopted to determine the FLC of both as-received and strained DC07 blanks with the help of an automated digital image correlation system to define the linear and bi-linear limit strains. Increasing the straining level (5 and 10%) of the first strain-path in uniaxial tension improved the limit strains of the DC07 steel sheet between the plane-strain intercept (FLC0) and the biaxial stretching region of the FLC. On the other hand, blanks which were firstly pre-strained in equibiaxial stretching mode (4.8 and 9%) provided better formability in the FLC drawing region and reduced limit strains in plane-strain and biaxial stretching regions.

Evolution of Roughness on Straining of Interstitial Free – IF Steel Sheet

This study aims to assess the evolution of surface roughness and waviness parameters with plastic strain in Interstitial Free – IF steel sheet. For the achievement of this study, it was considered various roughness and waviness profile parameters such as: arithmetic average roughness (Ra), maximum distance peak-valley (Rt), average waviness (Wa) and waviness of the total height peak-valley (Wt). Tensile test specimens of IF steel at 0º, 45º and 90º to the direction of rolling were fabricated. After preparing the sheet proof specimens, it was performed simple tensile tests and measurements of roughness and waviness of the specimen surface at various strain stages resulting in a large quantity of data. During the tensile test, it has been measured the following plastic strain to indicate the incremental step: (e1) longitudinal strain and (e2) transverse strain. From these data, it was possible to obtain points needed to plot the curves of roughness and waviness parameters versus strain and to determine the material behavior using equations of the equivalent strain. From the curves drawn it was possible to see how the material roughness and waviness behaves during the straining in the uniaxial tensile state, with the possibility to predict the influence of plastic strain on roughness and waviness parameters and the onset of local necking of IF steel sheet. The waviness parameters Wt is the best for characterizing the onset of local necking.

Effect of Electric Field Strength on Texture Evolution of IF Steel Sheet during Annealing

Specimens cut from a cold-rolled IF steel sheet of 1 mm thickness were respectively annealed at 750°C for 20min under a range of DC electric fields (1kV/cm~4kV/cm). The Effect of electric field strength on recrystallization texture of IF steel sheet was studied by mean of X-ray diffraction ODF analysis. It was found that γ-fiber textures were notably enhanced as electric field strength increased. The strength of γ-fiber textures got their peak values as the applied electric field reached to 4kV/cm. The possible reason for such phenomena was discussed in the viewpoint of interaction between the applied electric field and the orientation-dependent stored-energy in deformed metals which is known as the driving force for recrystallization during annealing.