Metal forming is not only shaping the form of a product, it is also influencing its mechanical and physical properties over its entire volume. Advanced analysis methods recently enable accurate prediction of these properties and allow for setting these properties deterministically during the forming process. Effective measurement methods ensure the setting of these predicted properties. Several real examples demonstrate the impressive achievements and indicate the necessity of a paradigm change in designing products by including manufacturing-induced effects in the initial dimensioning. This paradigm change will lead to lightweight components and serve environmentally benign designs.

Metal forming beyond shaping: Predicting and setting product properties

Predicting, understanding, and controlling the mechanical behavior is the most important task when designing structural materials. Modern alloy systems—in which multiple deformation mechanisms, phases, and defects are introduced to overcome the inverse strength–ductility relationship—give raise to multiple possibilities for modifying the deformation behavior, rendering traditional, exclusively experimentally-based alloy development workflows inappropriate. For fast and efficient alloy design, it is therefore desirable to predict the mechanical performance of candidate alloys by simulation studies to replace time- and resource-consuming mechanical tests. Simulation tools suitable for this task need to correctly predict the mechanical behavior in dependence of alloy composition, microstructure, texture, phase fractions, and processing history. Here, an integrated computational materials engineering approach based on the open source software packages DREAM.3D and DAMASK (Dusseldorf Advanced Materials Simulation Kit) that enables such virtual material development is presented. More specific, our approach consists of the following three steps: (1) acquire statistical quantities that describe a microstructure, (2) build a representative volume element based on these quantities employing DREAM.3D, and (3) evaluate the representative volume using a predictive crystal plasticity material model provided by DAMASK. Exemplarily, these steps are here conducted for a high-manganese steel.

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Identifying Structure–Property Relationships Through DREAM.3D Representative Volume Elements and DAMASK Crystal Plasticity Simulations: An Integrated Computational Materials Engineering Approach

Metal additive manufacturing has strongly gained scientific and industrial importance during the last decades due to the geometrical flexibility and increased reliability of parts, as well as reduced equipment costs. Within the field of metal additive manufacturing methods, selective laser melting (SLM) is an eligible technique for the production of fully dense bulk material with complex geometry. In the current study, we addressed the application of SLM for processing a high-manganese TRansformation-/TWinning-Induced Plasticity (TRIP/TWIP) steel. The solidification behavior was analyzed by careful characterization of the as-built microstructure and element distribution using optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, the deformation behavior was studied using uniaxial tensile testing and SEM. Comparison with conventionally produced TRIP/TWIP steel revealed that elemental segregation, which is normally very pronounced in high-manganese steels and requires energy-intensive post processing, is reduced due to the high cooling rates during SLM. Also, the very fast cooling promoted e- and α’-martensite formation prior to deformation. The superior strength and pronounced anisotropy of the SLM-produced material was correlated with the microstructure based on the process-specific characteristics.

Exploiting Process-Related Advantages of Selective Laser Melting for the Production of High-Manganese Steel.

Design of high-manganese steels for additive manufacturing applications with energy-absorption functionality

In this work, a high-manganese Fe–29Mn–0.3C TWIP steel was produced by twin-roll strip casting and subjected to additional thermo-mechanical treatment. The evolution of microstructure and texture in each processing condition was investigated and correlated with the corresponding mechanical properties. Due to pronounced microsegregations, chemical gradients and an inhomogeneous microstructure in the as-cast and hot-rolled material, regions of strongly varying stacking fault energy caused undesired austenite–martensite transformation and inhomogeneous mechanical properties. The specimens after additional cold rolling and annealing at temperatures as low as 900 °C revealed a microstructure with a homogeneous grain size distribution and significantly reduced microsegregations. The resulting mechanical properties were comparable to those of industrial advanced high strength steels and TWIP steel produced by conventional processing, where energy-consuming homogenization is necessary. Therefore, twin-roll strip casting offers the possibility for cost-effective processing of TWIP steel with competitive mechanical properties.

Twin-roll strip casting: A competitive alternative for the production of high-manganese steels with advanced mechanical properties

In this work a hot forming strategy, consisting of forging and hot rolling, to homogenize casted blocks of high-manganese steels with 0.3 % carbon and 22 % manganese is introduced. The resulting distribution of carbon and manganese is evaluated by microprobe scans. The micro-segregation of manganese could be reduced from 7 weight percent to 2. To create the obtained hot forming strategy hot compression tests have been carried out. The deformation behavior has been characterized for two steels with 22 % manganese and between 0.3 and 0.7 % carbon content in the temperature range between 700 and 1200°C and strain rates between 0.1 and 10 s-1.

Homogenization strategy and material characterization of high-manganese TRIP and TWIP steels

On instabilities of force and grain size predictions in the simulation of multi-pass hot rolling processes

For on-line prediction of roll force and torque, fast models have been available for a long time, which are mainly based on the slab method or other solution methods that allow for computing times in the range of seconds. Such fast models typically treat the rolling process as a plane strain problem and neglect shear deformation, which is always present in real processes. The shear deformation results in inhomogeneous strain profiles and thus might lead to inhomogeneity in microstructure over plate thickness. In this paper, a novel method is presented that allows for superposition of shear strain onto the strain state obtained from the slab method. The shear strains are interpolated from an extensive finite element (FE) parameter study of rolling processes that covers the entire parameter range of today’s plate rolling. For the regimes of very thick and thin plates different interpolation functions are introduced. It is shown that when the proposed shear strain model is combined with the slab method, similar results are obtained as with a full-scale FE calculation of the rolling problem but with a calculation time in the range of seconds.

Accounting for shear deformation in fast models for plate rolling

Development of levelling strategies for heavy plates via controlled FE models

A contact pressure which reaches up to ten times the yield stress of the workpiece material is characteristic for cold extrusion processes. Common tests for friction and wear are limited to rather low contact pressures. Thus, the aim of this paper is to present a new compression-torsion-tribometer which is able to scale the contact pressure to a multiple of the yield stress of the workpiece. In order to enable a contact pressure that greatly exceeds the yield stress of the workpiece material, the workpiece specimen is encapsulated laterally. As main parameters, contact pressure, glide length, and relative velocity can be adjusted independently, thus allowing for multiple load cycles. The resulting torque is measured continuously as an indicator for wear. Afterwards wear can be also quantified by examination of surfaces. Hence, the developed setup enables a comparison of tool surfaces and coatings and a characterization of wear behaviour under high contact pressure.

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Simon Seuren

Papers

Homogenization strategy and material characterization of high-manganese TRIP and TWIP steels

On instabilities of force and grain size predictions in the simulation of multi-pass hot rolling processes

Accounting for shear deformation in fast models for plate rolling

Development of levelling strategies for heavy plates via controlled FE models

A New Compression-Torsion-Tribometer with Scalable Contact Pressure for Characterization of Tool Wear during Plastic Deformation