The lightweighting of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) is an effective strategy to reduce fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions in the transport sector. The widespread application of ultra-high-strength steels (UHSSs) in HDV construction offers a viable solution, particularly for thick-walled chassis components. This study aimed to support the lightweighting of heavy vehicles by developing a methodology capturing the entire warm-forming process in the range of 430–580 °C for thick-walled UHSSs—from material characterisation, including elastoplastic and fracture properties, to downstream forming process simulations. A novel 7 mm thick UHSS grade, WARMLIGHT-980 (ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 980 MPa), intended for warm forming was investigated at 430, 505, and 580 °C using samples of reduced thickness. The results showed that thickness reduction had minimal influence on mechanical response at elevated temperatures, enabling flexible specimen design. The thermal uniformity improved in thinner samples, enhancing testing reliability. The calibrated hardening and fracture models demonstrated strong agreement with experimental data. Validated simulations of thick-walled components confirmed the accuracy of the modelling approach. The findings support the development of reliable, temperature-dependent models for warm-forming applications and contribute to the design of lighter, more sustainable HDV components without compromising structural integrity.

The study examines the shear cutting process of Advanced High Strength Steel using the Particle Finite Element Method. Shear cutting, a crucial process in sheet metal forming, often leads to microcracks and plastic deformation that degrades the material performance in subsequent applications, such as cold forming, crashworthiness, and fatigue resistance. This work utilises the Particle Finite Element Method as an alternative to conventional Finite Element Methods to address the challenges of large deformation solid mechanics, offering high predictive accuracy in localised shearing deformation and fracture. The model was validated against experimental data from sheet punching tests, with evaluations at both macroscopic and mesoscopic levels, including cut edge profiles and microstructural deformation within the shear-affected zone. The Particle Finite Element Method approach demonstrated a high level of accuracy in predicting cut edge shape and shear-induced damage across various cutting conditions. As an unconventional numerical technique, usage of the Particle Finite Element Method advances modelling of large deformations solid mechanics and providing a robust tool for optimising manufacturing processes of materials sensitive to sheared edge damage.

This study investigated how geometrical variations along the perimeter of sheared edges influenced the formability of advanced high-strength steel sheets during hole expansion. A combined numerical and experimental approach was employed, based on the standardised ISO 16630 Hole Expansion Test. The shear cutting process prior to cut edge forming was modelled using the Particle Finite Element Method, which enabled accurate prediction of edge morphology and deformation within the shear affected zone. The resulting geometries and residual fields were transferred to three-dimensional blank meshes for hole expansion simulations. A cold-rolled complex-phase steel was used, processed with varying cutting clearances to produce distinct edge conditions. Circumferential heterogeneities, including burr-to-no-burr transitions and irregular burnish patterns, were shown to significantly reduce edge formability and promote early crack initiation. These effects were found to be more detrimental than damage distributed through the thickness of the sheared edge. To represent such irregularities in numerical modelling, a hybrid meshing strategy was introduced, incorporating three-dimensional microscopy data into the simulation workflow. This approach improved the accuracy of predicted hole expansion ratios and allowed reproduction of experimentally observed fracture patterns. Stress analysis showed that geometric imperfections around the hole perimeter elevated local stress triaxiality and accelerated damage development. The findings emphasised the importance of achieving uniform cut edge quality to ensure reliable forming performance and reduce the risk of edge cracking during manufacturing.

Shear cutting introduces residual strains, notches and cracks, which negatively affects edge-formability. This is especially relevant for forming of high-strength sheets, where edge-cracking is a serious industrial problem. Numerical modelling of the shear cutting process can aid the understanding of the sheared edge damage and help preventing edge-cracking. However, modelling of the shear cutting process requires robust and accurate numerical tools that handle plasticity, large deformation and ductile failure. The use of conventional finite element methods (FEM) may give rise to distorted elements or loss of accuracy during re-meshing schemes, while mesh-free methods have tendencies of tensile instability or excessive computational cost. In this article, the authors propose the particle finite element method (PFEM) for modelling the shear cutting process of high-strength steel sheets, acquiring high accuracy results and overcoming the stated challenges associated with FEM. The article describe the implementation of a mixed axisymmetric formulation, with the novelty of adding a ductile damage- and failure model to account for material fracture in the shear-cutting process. The PFEM shear-cutting model was validated against experiments using varying process parameters to ensure the predictive capacity of the model. Likewise, a thorough sensitivity analysis of the numerical implementation was conducted. The results show that the PFEM model is able to predict the process forces and cut edge shapes over a wide range of cutting clearances, while efficiently handling the numerical challenges involved with large material deformation. It is thus concluded that the PFEM implementation is an accurate predictive tool for sheared edge damage assessment.

The use of Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) allows for lightweighting of sheet steel components, with maintained structural integrity of the part. However, AHSS grades show limitations in edge crack resistance, primarily influenced by sheared edge damage introduced by the shear cutting process. Numerical modelling of the shear cutting process can aid the understanding of the sheared edge damage, thus avoiding unforeseen edge cracking in the subsequent cold forming. However, the extreme deformations of the blank during the shear cutting process are likely to cause numerical instabilities and divergence using conventional Finite Element modelling. To overcome these challenges, this work presents the use of a particle-based numerical modelling method called the Particle Finite Element Method (PFEM). PFEM accurately solves some of the challenges encountered in shear cutting with the standard Finite Element method, such as large deformation, angular distortions, generation of new boundaries and presents an efficient way of transfer historical information from the old to the new mesh, minimising the results diffusion. The present work shows prediction of cut edge morphology of AHSS using a PFEM modelling scheme, where the numerical results are verified against experiments. With these results, the authors show new possibilities to obtain accurate numerical prediction of the shear cutting process, which promotes further advances in prediction of edge damaged related to shear cutting of AHSS.

Sandwich structures are commonly used to increase bending-stiffness without significantly increasing weight. In particular, micro-sandwich materials have been developed with the automotive industry in mind, being thin and formable. In the present work, it is investigated if micro-sandwich materials may be modeled using commercially available material models, accounting for both elasto-plasticity and fracture. A methodology for calibration of both the constitutive- and the damage model of micro-sandwich materials is presented. To validate the models, an experimental T-peel test is performed on the micro-sandwich material and compared with the numerical models. The models are found to be in agreement with the experimental data, being able to recreate the force response as well as the fracture of the micro-sandwich core.

In the present work, numerical models are developed for the shearing and cutting process of advanced high strength steel-blanks which can predict the edge morphology in the shear effected zone. A damage model, based on the modified Mohr-Coulomb fracture surface, is calibrated. To increase the predictability of the numerical models, the fracture surface is fine-tuned in areas corresponding to the stress-state of cutting, a methodology called Local calibration of Fracture Surface (LCFS). Four cutting cases with varying clearance are simulated and verified with experimental tests, showing good agreement. It is thus found that the suggested methodology can simulate cutting with adequate accuracy. Furthermore, it is found that solely using plane-stress tensile specimens for calibrating the fracture surface is not enough to obtain numerical models with adequate accuracy.

Legislative demands force the automotive industry to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At the same time, crashworthiness must not be compromised. A ve-hicle’s GHG emissions, such as carbon dioxide, is dependent on its fuel consump-tion. Lowering the vehicle weight, reducing fuel consumption, will therefor reduce emissions. Thus, high performance lightweight materials and structures are on demand. Several methods for achieving high-performance lightweight components are available. One of the most successful approaches has been replacing mild steels with press-hardened steels, e.g. ultra high strength steels (UHSS). In the press-hardening process, a low-alloyed boron steel blank is austenitized followed by simultaneously forming and cooling. By controlling cooling rates, a martensitic microstructure can be obtained, resulting in components with superior properties compared to mild steels. Other methods of achieving lightweight components in-clude the usage of sandwich structures where stiff skins are bonded to a low-density core. In the present thesis, several types of sandwich structures are studied both numerically and experimentally. A UHSS sandwich with a bidirectionlly corru-gated core, intended for stiffness application, is manufactured and evaluated in three-point bending. Finite element models are utilized to recreate the three-point bend test. A large amount of finite elements are required for precise discretization of the core. The number of finite elements are reduced by replacing the sandwich with an homogeneous, equivalent model with input data obtained from analyzing representative volume elements (RVEs) of the core, subjected to periodic and ho-mogeneous boundary conditions. Good agreement is found between experiments and finite element models. A UHSS sandwich with a partly perforated core is evaluated numerically for energy absorption applications. Several hole configu-rations for the core are evaluated with respect to specific energy absorption. A fracture criterion is utilized for the sandwich skins. Computational time is re-duced by homogenization of the core using a stress-resultant based constitutive model. It is found that the sandwich concept allows for an increase in specific energy absorption and that the computational time can be reduced while still be-ing able to predict energy absorption. An experimental methodology is developed for mechanical characterization of micro-sandwich materials. Tools are developed for loading the micro-sandwich in out-of-plane tension and shear, where digital image correlation is used for measuring displacements fields and fracture of the micro-sandwich core. Statistical methods are adopted for analyzing the variation in the mechanical properties of the micro-sandwich from which statistical means may be obtained. The experimental data is used as input for constitutive models, simulating the micro-sandwich material subjected to peeling, using a T-peel test. The numerical models are validated against experiments, found to agree within one standard deviation, suggesting that the experimental methodology produces robust data.The present work has thus presented methods, further increasing the usability of UHSS with regard to lightweighting, and explored how such components may be simulated numerically with adequate accuracy and reasonable computation time. Furthermore, the present thesis contributes by presenting methods for character-izing micro-sandwich materials, including statistical methods for analyzing scatter in mechanical properties, and how such sandwich materials may be modeled, tak-ing elasto-plasticity and damage into account. These results opens up possibilities for further development and optimization of lightweight constructions.