Prediction of fracture in a hub-hole expansion with a defected-edge model

Abstract

The hub hole is usually formed with a stretch flanging process followed by a blanking process of a hole. Since the hole is made by blanking, the blanked surface is so rough that the formability in the region is rather poor. The emerging task is to identify the formability of the blanked region in the forming simulation and to relate the criterion to the real forming process by experiments. In this paper, the blanked region of a hole surface is modeled by a defected-edge finite element for stretch flanging simulation. The analysis deals with the level of defect in the blanked region in order to identify the formability in the real process. The analysis provides the formability depending on the level of defect and seeks the way to match the level of defect to that of the real surface. The approach makes the analysis possible to deal with the formability of the high strength steel and predict the fracture at the hole surface during the stretch flanging simulation.