The usage of high-strength steels for structural components and reinforcement parts is inevitable for modern car-body manufacture in reaching lightweight design as well as increasing passive safety. Depending on their microstructure these steels show differing damage mechanisms and various mechanical properties which cannot be classified comprehensively via classical uniaxial tensile testing. In this research, damage initiation, evolution and final material failure are characterized for commercially produced complex-phase (CP) and dual-phase (DP) steels in a strength range between 600 and 1000 MPa. Based on these investigations CP steels with their homogeneous microstructure are characterized as damage tolerant and hence less edge-crack sensitive than DP steels. As final fracture occurs after a combination of ductile damage evolution and local shear band localization in ferrite grains at a characteristic thickness strain, this strain measure is introduced as a new parameter for local formability. In terms of global formability DP steels display advantages because of their microstructural composition of soft ferrite matrix including hard martensite particles. Combining true uniform elongation as a measure for global formability with the true thickness strain at fracture for local formability the mechanical material response can be assessed on basis of uniaxial tensile testing incorporating all microstructural characteristics on a macroscopic scale. Based on these findings a new classification scheme for the recently developed high-strength multiphase steels with significantly better formability resulting of complex underlying microstructures is introduced. The scheme overcomes the steel designations using microstructural concepts, which provide no information about design and production properties.

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In order to evaluate the formability of sheet materials forming limit diagrams (FLD) are recorded which represent the values of major and minor strain when necking occurs. FLDs are recorded based on the assumption that exclusively linear strain paths occur. In real forming parts, however, particularly in those with complex shapes, predominantly non-linear strain paths occur which reduce the accuracy of the failure prediction according to a conventional FLD. For this reason forming limits after loading with non-linear strain paths have to be investigated. In this contribution a systematic analysis of the forming limits of a conventional AA6014 alloy after loading with non-linear strain paths is presented. This material is pre-stretched in uniaxial, plane strain and biaxial direction up to several levels before performing Nakajima experiments in order to determine FLDs. During the pre-stretching process as well as during the Nakajima experiment the strain distribution can be measured online very precisely with the optical deformation measurement systems GOM Aramis or VIALUX. The gained curves are compared to the FLD of the as-received material. The results prove a significant influence of the pre-stretching condition on the forming limits of the used aluminum alloy. For a low pre-stretching in uniaxial as well as in biaxial direction the FLDs show a slightly reduced formability while after higher pre-stretching levels the forming limit can be improved such as for biaxial loading after uniaxial pre-stretching. The formability after pre-stretching in plane strain direction was changed. Also, a shift of the FLD depending on the direction of pre-stretching can be observed.

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