Determination of elastoplastic mechanical properties of the weld and heat affected zone metals in tailor-welded blanks by nanoindentation test

The elastoplastic mechanical properties of the weld and heat affected zone metals have comparatively major impact on the forming process of tailor-welded blanks. A few scholars investigated the elastoplastic mechanical properties of the weld and heat affected zone, but they only simply assumed that it was a uniform distribution elastoplastic material different from the base materials. Four types of tailor-welded blanks which consist of ST12 and 304 stainless steel plates are selected as the research objects, the elastoplastic mechanical properties of the tailor-welded blanks weld and heat affected zone metals are obtained based on the nanoindentation tests, and the Erichsen cupping tests are conducted by combining numerical simulation with physical experiment. The nanoindentation tests results demonstrate that the elastoplastic mechanical properties of the weld and heat affected zone metals are not only different from the base materials, but also varying between the weld metals and the heat affected zone metals. Comparing the Erichsen cupping test resulted from numerical with that from experimental method, it is found that the numerical value of Erichsen cupping test which consider the elastoplastic mechanical properties of the weld and heat affected zone metals have a good agreement with the experimental result, and the relative error is only 4.8%. The proposed research provides good solutions for the inhomogeneous elastoplastic mechanical properties of the tailor-welded blanks weld and heat affected zone metals, and improves the control performance of tailor-welded blanks forming accuracy.