Stefan Marth

Background

BSc in General Engineering Sciences from the University of Technology Hamburg-Harburg, Germany.
MSc in Aerospace Engineering from the Braunschweig Institute of Technology, Germany. 

Research project: Fracture Modelling of Multiphase Materials

Introduction

The dominant technology for lightweight design of car structures is based on press-hardening. The technology is a Swedish innovation has developed into a global technology with Sweden still as the world leader in research and industrial development. The driving forces are the reduction of emissions and increased car safety. The usage of press hardened components in the next generation of car structures is expected to be above 40%. A prerequisite for efficient introduction of new high performance materials is the availability of efficient and accurate methods for simulation of fracture in crash analyses.

Project goals and results

The project should give an overview of some most fundamental issues encountered in fracture modelling of press-hardened steel. A method developed in this project is the Stepwise Modelling Method (SMM) and is used to characterize material properties like plasticity and fracture parameters. Using the microstructure composition data from forming simulations to perform crash simulations in multi scale analysis, the crack path can be analysed.  The development of cohesive fracture models is the main goal the project. This should lead to an improvement of the development time and to lighter cars while maintaining the safety.

Supervisors

Supervisor: Hans-Åke Häggblad
Assistant Supervisor: Mats Oldenburg