Gaseous medium is being used for sheet metal forming at elevated temperatures, especially for lightweighting purposes. These processes enable forming of high strength alloys of a wide range of thickness due to low material flow stress as well as improved formability. In these processes, the resulting component properties are an interplay of numerous parameters. Instead of cost and time intensive experiments, FEM aids an effective and economic process optimization and enables a better understanding of the influence of process parameters on the component properties. In the current study, the importance of appropriate discretization of the workpiece within a gas-based hot sheet metal forming process is investigated based on a laboratory scale component. AA6010 sheet metal blanks of different thicknesses are studied numerically and experimentally. Simulations with different types of elements are performed and the evolution of process parameters as well as their influence on the final component thickness are analysed. Different element types resulted in noticeable difference in the simulation results and this difference also varies with the initial sheet thickness. Upon further experimental validation, the suitable element type for workpiece discretization is suggested, which enables practitioners to get reliable results via FE simulation of these processes.

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The present article describes design, architecture, and implementation of the Aachen ("Aix") Virtual Platform for Materials Processing-AixViPMaP ®. This simulation platform focuses on enabling automatic simulation workflows in the area of microstructure evolution and microstructure property relationships by continuum models. Following a description of a variety AixViPMaP® functionalities like user management, the currently implemented software tools, simulation workflows, data storage, grid infrastructure, and many more, some example workflows which have been run on AixViPMaP® are presented in detail. These workflow examples-although each being specific-can readily be transferred to other materials or to similar processes as the major simulation tools used in these workflows are all generic and thus applicable to a wide range of metals and technical alloys. The article concludes with a discussion on the performance and benefits of the platform, an outlook on its future development and on its open, future availability for both academic and commercial use.

The rolling process induces a heterogeneous deformation over the rolling stock height. The causes are the frictional shear stress between the contacting surfaces and the roll gap geometry. They induce a complex material flow within the rolling stock describable by the shear evolution. The shear evolution has a significant impact on rolling values like grain size and crystallographic texture and therefore on the final material properties of the rolled product. Industry and academia use fast rolling models for flat rolling processes to predict the material properties due to their short computation time. The time advantage enables online applicability to adapt processes in real time or to evaluate the influence of different process conditions several times within seconds. However, these models have a limitation regarding the shear evolution. They do not consider all relevant influences or apply simplifying assumptions, valid only for specific rolling cases. This work presents a general approach to extend fast rolling models to consider the shear evolution without any restrictions to specific rolling cases. The approach derives the shear evolution as shear angle $$\alpha$$ α evolution based on FE simulations. The shear angle $$\alpha$$ α is a geometrical description and not influenced by rotations, which occur during the rolling process. This enables an enhanced and simple analysis of the material flow. The outcome is an extended model that completely describes the deformation along a deformation path and enables the calculation of each desired deformation value (strain, deformation gradient, velocity gradient, etc.).