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ONLINE MATERIAL DATABASE

The pressure is on to reduce development times in the automotive industry

Fast, accurate material data from your steel supplier can give you the competitive advantage by saving time and cost acquiring material data and by enabling more accurate simulations for reduced tool try-out time and no surprises during crash testing.

HIGH QUALITY, ADVANCED MATERIAL DATA AND EXPERT ADVICE

What’s in Aurora® Online?

  • Tata Steel's automotive product range
  • High quality data, representative of production material, developed and maintained by our experts
  • Full range of material properties such as forming, joining, fatigue and crash data
  • New product data sets to speed up material evaluation and assessment for application in new vehicles
  • Access to most up-to-date material data and information on new grades for early evaluation
  • Material data sheets available as both raw basic data (Excel data sheets) and ready-to-run input decks for the most commonly used FEA packages, saving time in feasibility assessments
  • Expert support: where you have a specific challenge our experts are there to support you to set up the simulation and evaluate the results.

More accurate simulations for smoother tool try out and testing

Aurora Online offers our customers on-demand access to representative material data and advanced material models to predict and enable accurate simulations for reduced tool try-out time and no surprises during crash testing. Using advanced material data and plasticity models and with the support of our world leading R&D experts on material plasticity, you can set up accurate and reliable forming and crash simulations that reduce lead times and lower expenditure on materials testing during the development of new vehicles and tooling.

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SAVE HOURS SETTING UP SIMULATIONS


Aurora Online provides data sets that depict the actual steel properties, and not simply the specification limits. With all data available in easy-to-read Excel data sheets and in ready-to-run input deck format, customers no longer need to fit yield loci, forming limit curves and hardening curves themselves.

That's how this powerful tool will save you hours in setting up accurate, reliable simulations. The ready-to-run input decks are available for the most commonly-used forming software packages including:

  • AutoForm
  • LS-DYNA
  • PAMSTAMP (ESI Group)
  • PAMCRASH (ESI Group)
  • Stampack Xpress
  • Radioss
  • MSC Marc 
  • Mentat/Simufact Forming

Instant access to material data when you need it for material assessment 

The Aurora Online database is instantly and easily accessible, ensuring accurate and consistent data whenever you want it, without having to call suppliers or test samples, making it ideal for urgent requests. It also offers access to the most up-to-date material data and information on new grades for the early evaluation of new materials.

VEGTER 2017 AND ABSPOEL & SCHOLTING FLC

Highly accurate advanced material models

Accurate simulations are not only about high quality data, but also realistic material models. Tata Steel's R&D has experts dedicated to the development of representative material models for all material types. Examples include:

  • Vegter 2017 Yield Locus: a new method for predicting advanced yield criteria input parameters from tensile properties 
  • Abspoel & Scholting Forming Limit Curve: an efficient and reliable method for predicting forming limit curves from tensile properties in 0°, 45° and 90°

Aurora Online contains both input data and ready-to-run decks to facilitate easy use of these models. You can achieve the most accurate simulation result with a minimal amount of experimental input data:

  • no need for special tests (biaxial, plane strain and shear stress points)
  • as easy as Hill’48 and Keeler, but much more accurate

FEA suppliers AutoForm, LS-DYNA, MSC Marc and Mentat, PAM-CRASH (ESI Group), PAM-STAMP (ESI Group) and Stampack Xpress have implemented Vegter (2017) in their software allowing you to use the same material models globally. The Abspoel & Scholting Forming Limit Curve is implemented in AutoForm. For other packages the data can be imported as tabulated data. 

Aurora Online Vegter 2017
Aurora Online

Getting access

Tata Steel offers Aurora Online to its valued customers to support fast evaluation of new products, to access advanced material cards for accurate simulations and to enable joint simulation projects. To enquire about access, please email connect.automotive@tatasteeleurope.com. Information on how we process your data can be found in our privacy statement. 

Supported by experts in simulation/modelling

The excellent reliability and accuracy of Aurora Online’s advanced material data and plasticity models is thanks to Tata Steel’s Innovation Centre, a world leading authority on material plasticity. 

Tata Steel’s experts in material data and modelling are there to support Aurora Online users with specific challenges by advising on simulation set up and evaluation to get the most realistic results. 

 

ASK OUR EXPERTS
For questions about the data and models within Aurora Online and user assistance, please contact our 4 experts:
Michael Abspoel
Principal researcher

Further area of speciality: mechanical testing, forming limit curve, yield locus, AutoForm, PAM-STAMP and hot forming.

Biography:
Michael has worked in sheet metal formability for over 25 years. With a background in mechanical engineering, he started as a design and FEA engineer working closely with a press shop. Having later begun to run forming simulation for customers, his work evolved into developing accurate and easy-to-use advanced material models for forming and crash simulation, and improving material characterisation testing, both in-house at Tata Steel and in international working groups. 

E: Michael.Abspoel@tatasteeleurope.com

Michael Abspoel
Area of speciality: Material modelling and testing
Eisso Atzema
Principal scientist

Further area of speciality:  hole expansion, robustness and process control.

Biography:
Eisso has worked in sheet metal formability for over 25 years. His background is in applied mechanics and he started out as an FEA engineer. Over time he became involved in customer support for forming, experimental formability and material characterisation (including scatter) and lately in edge ductility. He has carried out research in international collaborative projects. His next challenge is to employ material and process knowledge in the active control of deep drawing processes.

E: Eisso.Atzema@tatasteeleurope.com

Eisso Atzema
Area of speciality: Formability
Marc Scholting
Principal researcher

Further area of speciality: Aurora Online administrator.

Biography:
Marc has been in research and development for over 20 years. His background is in mechanical engineering and tribology. He started as researcher and project leader of an international collaborative project on the fatigue performance of materials and joints. Over time he became involved in customer support for in-service performance, material characterisation and formability. This evolved into the development of our Aurora Online material data service and the development of accurate and easy to use advanced material models for forming and crash simulation. His next challenges are to employ material performance knowledge in customer engineering projects and to develop new Aurora features enabling customers to get the full potential out of our materials.

E: Marc.Scholting@tatasteeleurope.com

Marc Scholting
Area of speciality: Aurora Online functionality support
Janka Cafolla
Principal engineer

Further area of speciality: vehicle impact simulations predominantly using LS-DYNA; gauge/grade optimisation of vehicle components and off-highway machinery; fracture modelling; Aurora Online UK administrator.

Biography:
Janka has worked in the automotive sector as a structural analyst for 25 years. Her experience with finite element modelling started during her studies at Warwick University where she gained her PhD in Structural Engineering. Her considerable experience in crash analysis is helping Tata Steel evaluate the potential for new steels in body structures. Her expertise in LS-DYNA software supports many Value Added / Value Engineering (VA/VE) projects; projects involving the light weighting of vehicle structures or its components in either automotive or off-highway sectors; understanding of modelling fracture failure in FE software and many other projects. Over the years with TATA Steel, Janka has led several projects supporting customers and new product development and application of advanced / ultra high-strength steel grades.

E: Janka.Cafolla@tatasteeleurope.com 

Janka Cafolla
Area of speciality: Crashworthiness and structural analysis
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Quick links and publications

Getting access to Aurora material database: email connect.automotive@tatasteeleurope.com
 

Publication list

Title Journal / Conference Author(s)
A plane stress yield function for anisotropic sheet material by interpolation of biaxial stress states. International Journal of Plasticity 22 (2006), p.557 H. Vegter, A.H. van den Boogaard
A new method for predicting advanced yield criteria input parameters from mechanical properties Journal of Materials Processing Technology, Volume 248, October 2017, Pages 161–177 M. Abspoel, M.E. Scholting, M. Lansbergen, Y.G. An, H. Vegter
A new method for predicting Forming Limit Curves from mechanical properties Journal of Materials Processing Technology, Volume 213, Issue 5, May 2013, Pages 759–769 M. Abspoel, M.E. Scholting, J.M.M. Droog
Accurate anisotropic material modelling using only tensile tests for hot and cold forming IOPSCIENCE Journal of Physics: Conference series, Volume 896 Conference 1 (IDDRG 2017) M. Abspoel, M.E. Scholting, M. Lansbergen, B.M. Neelis
Analytical and experimental study of frictional behavior in through-thickness compression test Journal of Materials Processing Technology 160 (2005) 148–155 Y.G. An, H.Vegter
A novel and simple method for the measurement of plane strain work hardening Journal of Materials Processing Technology 155–156 (2004) 1616–1622 Y.G. An, H. Vegter, L. Elliott
Development of simple shear test for the measurement of work hardening Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 4248–4254 Y.G. An, H. Vegter, J. Heijne
Experimental analysis of strain path dependent ductile damage mechanics and forming limits Mechanics of Materials, Volume 41, Issue 11, November 2009, Pages 1264-1276 C.C. Tasan, J.P.M.Hoefnagels, C.H.L.J.ten Horn, M.G.D.Geers
Inherent influence of strain path in Nakazima FLC IDDRG 2011 M. Abspoel, E.H. Atzema, J.M.M. Droog, T. Khandeparkar, M.E. Scholting, F.J. Schouten, H. Vegter
Testing methods for fracture modelling Werkstoffprüfung 2009 C.H.L.J. ten Horn, M.P.J. Lambriks, K. Unruh
Thermomechanical forming and crash simulations IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering M Abspoel , M E Scholting and M Lansbergen

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