Entwicklung einer virtuellen Prozesskette zur rechnergestützten Simulation der Umformung von textilkaschierten Holzoberflächen dekorativer Bauteile im Fahrzeug-Innenraum

Abstract

In automotive manufacturing, laminated veneer sheets are being formed into a 3D geometry for the production of trim parts with wood surfaces. Estimations of the formability are challenging due to the brittle, anisotropic and inhomogeneous nature of wood. During the vehicle development process, the design of the forming process requires extensive tests with prototype tools. The present thesis introduces numerical methods for the prediction of the formability of veneers with nonwoven backings in order to reduce expenses for the usage of prototype tools and to rapid the development process. The simulation of the forming process requires adequate modelling of the deformation and failure behavior of the laminated veneer structure. Therefore, ash wood veneers with nonwoven backings were characterized in their principal mechanical properties, in tensile and shear tests. In the Nakajima test the material was analyzed under three-dimensional load to identify the forming limits and the influencing factors on the forming process. These are mainly the anisotropy, the inhomogeneity and the temperature and moisture boundaries. The experimentally obtained data was used to derive constitutive laws and a material model. As found in the experiments, failure and deformation behavior of veneer laminates vary with the individual arrangement of early- and latewood zones over a veneer sheet. Therefore, a discretization method is presented, where local failure and damage modes are considered for finite element models. Within the tool Envyo, a mapping scheme was realized for the transfer of early- and latewood zones from ash wood veneer surfaces to finite element meshes, based on gray scale images. In combination to the separate consideration of early- and latewood zones in the model, a set of material input parameters for both zones was created using numerical optimization methods. The force-displacement response of tensile and shear test simulations was calibrated with the corresponding experimental curves. The introduced modelling procedure was validated with the experimental program. In a stochastic, numerical analysis the same distribution of tensile strength and ultimate strain values with varying early- and latewood arrangements was achieved, compared to the experimental tensile test results. Local fracture as well as the characteristic strain distribution were captured in the model in a very good agreement with results of the Nakajima test. Additionally, a conventional forming process of an interior trim part surface was carried out, using veneer samples with different individual textures originating from the growth ring structure. Gray scale images of those samples were mapped to finite element models to perform the same process numerically. Those forming simulations show the wrinkling behavior, depending on the individual arrangement of earlywood zones, as observed in the hardware forming tests. In summary, the research output of the present thesis provides the whole process chain for the virtual design of the forming process of veneers with nonwoven backings, with consideration of the individual growth-related properties of the veneer structure.