LS-DYNA Features for Hot Stamping

LS-971 has several new features to model the hot stamping process. A thick thermal shell formulation allows modeling a temperature gradient through the thickness of the shell. The new keyword, *MAT_ADD_THERMAL_EXPANSION, allows calculating thermal strains for all the mechanical material models. A new feature has been added to thermal contact which turns off thermal boundary conditions when surfaces come in contact. A new thermal one-way contact algorithm has been added which more accurately models heat transfer between a blank and die. New features have been added to thermal-mechanical contact which allows modeling the coefficients of friction as a function of temperature and thermal contact resistance as a function of interface pressure.