GOALI: Continuous-Bending-under-Tension Studies to Enhance the Formability of Advanced Steels and Aluminum Alloys

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This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project in collaboration with Ford Motor Company provides funding to, a) create a fundamental understanding of the mechanism which enhances metal formability during continuous-bending-under-tension and b) to exploit this behavior through innovative manufacturing processes. In order for the industry to take advantage of continuous-bending-under-tension to achieve formability improvements, fundamental knowledge of the underlying phenomena, accurate models to predict material behavior and innovative processing solutions to exploit this effect are required. Two specific materials, DP780 steel and AA6022 aluminum alloy will be investigated in this research. Both of these are of interest and increasingly evaluated for various weight-sensitive applications, but have very different microstructures and are expected to behave differently during continuous-bending-under-tension. The principal investigators and senior personnel have significant and relevant expertise in experimental mechanics, material characterization, microstructural-based and continuum constitutive modeling, process simulations, and sheet metal forming, to assure the success of this research.If successful, the results of this research will benefit society at large by reducing the environmental impact of products such as automobiles and by enabling more aggressive product designs, which will further decrease the weight and cost of components. Also, graduate and undergraduate students will benefit from the industrial focus of this project and the fact that the results will be directly integrated into the curriculum. In addition, the PIs will build on their past success in recruiting students from underrepresented groups in engineering to participate in the research. Research Experience for Teachers participants will be involved in the project and will create modules for high school science and pre-engineering courses to attract more students to these disciplines. Finally, to ensure that the results of this research are effectively communicated to industry, workshops will be conducted through the collaboration with industrial partners.