Industrial challenges for finite element and multiscale methods for material modeling

The automotive industry promotes lightweight design to reduce the CO2-emission and enhances the passenger’s safety using high strength steel grades. One limiting factor to the accuracy of modern stamping simulation are the empirical constitutive models. In particular for high strength multiphase steels the modelling techniques like multi-scale methods are becoming more interesting. However they should meet the industrial needs. Not only the accuracy but also features like time, costs and complexity are rapidly increasing. The challenge is the development of finite element technologies and multi-scale methods in an appropriate framework for industrial projects. The crystal plasticity finite element method bridges the gap between the micro level and macroscopic mechanical properties that opens the way for more profound consideration of metal anisotropy in stamping process simulation. Nevertheless new empirical constitutive models are favourable for spring back prediction in forming simulations, even if the number of material parameters and the amount of tests for their identification increases. In this paper the application of crystal plasticity FEM within the concept of virtual material testing with a representative volume element (RVE) is demonstrated.