2022 Volume 63 Issue 734 Pages 33-38
In recent years, the improvement of crash safety and lighter weight vehicles have become issues of highest concern in the automotive industry. To meet these requirements, the three-dimensional hot bending and direct quench (3DQ) technology has been developed. The 3DQ technology enables the formation of hollow tubular automotive parts with a tensile strength of 1470 MPa or higher. In addition, this technology facilitates the production of partially quenched automotive parts. It is possible to partially quench parts using controlled induction heat. On the other hand, there are many S-shaped automotive parts with a rectangular cross-section. In this study, the affecting factors of partially quenched S-shaped products are investigated by finite element analysis to improve energy absorption by considering production thickness and cross-sectional shape. To improve the energy absorption of S-shaped products, buckling behavior in the non-quenched straight portion is important. The effects of some major factors (notch, cross section shape and drop weight inclining angle) on the axial crash behavior of straight non-quenched products are investigated. In this study, the energy absorption per mass of a newly designed partially quenched S-shaped product with a polygonal cross section, designed using the 3DQ technology, was 530% higher than that of a conventional non-quenched product.
