Prediction of Microstructure after Hot Stamping Process on 4140 Steel Sheet

High strength steels are used in automotive industries to reduce vehicle weight and increase safety of car's passengers. But increasing the strength of steel sheets leads to reduction of their formability. so the steels with controlled microstructure and specific composition are used in the Hot Stamping process to gain adequate strength at the end of the process. The experimental methods for determination of resulted microstructure after hot stamping process are costly and time consuming, so application of finite element method can be beneficial for prediction of microstructure. In this study, the hot Stamping process of 4140 steel sheet is simulated using commercial finite element software, Abaqus. By superimposing of calculated cooling curve on the existing continuous cooling diagram of 4140 steel it has been tried to predict the final microstructure of sheet after hot stamping process.

Keywords:

FE simulation , High strength steels , Hot stamping , 4140 steel