Numerical Study of the Flexural Behaviour of Additively Reinforced Blanks

Tailored welded and patchwork blanks are commonly used in the automotive field to locally tailor the mechanical response of sheet metal components, but conventional manufacturing approaches often introduce structural discontinuities, corrosion-prone interfaces and limited formability. Additive deposition of local reinforcements offers a more flexible alternative, enabling material to be placed only where it provides the greatest structural benefit and reducing overall material usage and environmental impact. This work investigates the flexural behaviour of additively reinforced blanks through finite element simulations. A numerical model was developed in Abaqus to reproduce three-point bending tests on 22MnB5 sheets locally reinforced by the wire-laser additive deposition of a 316L stainless steel. Metallographic cross-sections were used to define the reinforcement geometry and penetration depth, micro-hardness profiles to define the extent of the heat affected zone, and plastometric characterisation to obtain local mechanical properties. The simulations demonstrate that the proposed numerical model reliably reproduces the experimentally observed flexural behaviour of wire-laser additively reinforced blanks. The numerical force displacement response is consistent with the experimental one, and within this agreement the increase in bending strength obtained with minimal added material is confirmed.