ABSTRACT
The study of the flow behaviour of automotive sheet steel for strain rates up to 500/s is critical for understanding the material response in a crash-loading situation as well as high-speed manufacturing processes like sheet metal stamping. The experimental data for such cases are traditionally determined using high-speed servo-hydraulic testing machines. However, the testing method demands the use of a load strain gauge and elongation strain gauge to capture load and elongation data. The use of such external data acquisition devices is not so common but is essential since the data acquired from machines is not useful at intermediate and high strain rates due to load cell ringing. Thus, it requires a specific technique with respect to specimen preparation, strain gauge bonding and proper data acquisition to arrive at good data useful for crash modelling and application. The chapter attempts to describe this specific technique and underline its importance for good strain-rate-dependent testing using servo-hydraulic testing equipment. DP590-grade steel of 1.42 mm thickness is characterized and a novel double-cell crash box of the same material is also designed and simulated under drop load conditions for energy absorption. The proposed double-cell design is finally prototyped for further study.
