Advanced high strength steels (AHSSs) are characterized by an excellent balance of strength and ductility and are therefore ideally suited for automotive applications. DyMaLab has a long tradition of research into the impact-dynamic and crashworthiness properties of automotive steels. Steels of the first, second and current third generation AHSSs have been studied.

Key element of these studies is always an extensive test campaign to characterise the material behaviour over a wide range of strain rates and, very often also, temperatures and stress states. Based on the test observations existing plasticity and damage models are calibrated or new models are developed. Implemented in finite element programs, these models allow to predict the behaviour of structures subjected to impact loads.