Manufacturing process optimisation for high performance electrical steels for low emission advanced electric drivetrains in automotive applications

硅（Si）是钢中的主要合金元素之一，用于提高电工钢的磁性能。高硅含量和厚度低至0.1 mm的薄板可提供最高的最终产品磁性质量。然而，高硅电工钢的微观力学性能仍有许多未知数。此外，在这些钢种的生产中涉及若干挑战，因为Si的存在导致可成形性降低，这使得材料在生产期间的若干阶段易于发生意外的脆性断裂。拟议项目旨在开发一种制造方法，供Cogent Power用于转换由塔尔博特港的塔塔钢铁热轧厂生产的硅含量为3.2%的电工钢，了解材料在不同条件下的机械和冶金性能是预测其变形行为的第一步并开发所需的预测模型。将设计定制的实验装置，以调查和确定所选材料的热轧和随后的冷轧操作中涉及的变形和损伤力学/机制。采用多尺度力学试验测量3.2%Si电工钢热轧过程中的显微组织变形，并对热轧过程进行实验模拟，以更好地了解3.2%Si电工钢热轧过程中的微观变形机制和组织演变。将开发热-机械耦合有限元模型，以预测所选材料在南威尔士塔塔钢铁港塔尔博特工厂不同制造操作阶段的可成形性和损伤发生/演变。所开发的模型将在英国和欧洲的塔塔钢铁工厂使用实验室轧制实验进行验证。

Silicon (Si) is one of the main alloying elements in steels used to promote magnetic properties in electrical steels. The high Si content and the thin sheets with thicknesses as low as 0.1 mm, provide the highest magnetic quality final products. However, there are many unknowns about micromechanical properties of high Si content electrical steels. Additionally, several challenges are involved in the production of these steels grades as the presence of Si leads to a reduced formability that makes the material prone to unexpected brittle fracture at several stages during the production. The proposed project aims to develop a manufacturing methodology to be used by Cogent Power to convert electrical steels with 3.2% Si content, produced by Tata Steel hot strip rolling mill at Port Talbot site, into highest quality electrical steels with a thickness of about 0.1 millimetres.Understanding the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the material at different conditions is the first step to predict their deformation behaviour during a manufacturing process and develop required predictive models. Bespoke experimental setups will be designed in order to investigate and determine the deformation and damage mechanics/mechanisms involved in the hot and subsequent cold rolling operations of the selected material. Multi-scale mechanical tests will be performed to measure microstructural deformation during hot rolling process.The hot rolling process will be experimentally simulated in order to get a better insight into micro-mechanism of deformation and microstructural evolution during hot rolling of 3.2% Si electrical steel. Thermo-mechanically coupled Finite Element models will be developed to predict formability and damage initiation/evolution in the selected material for different stage of manufacturing operations to be used in Tata Steel Port Talbot site in South Wales. The developed models will be validated using laboratory rolling experiments at Tata Steel facilities within the UK and Europe.