Hybrid Forming of Dual‐Phase Steel: Exploring the Synergistic Effects of Stress Relaxation and Electroplasticity on Ductility

Advanced high‐strength steels (AHSS) find wide usage in automotive applications due to their ability to enhance passenger safety with improved fuel efficiency. Several non‐conventional forming techniques have been proposed in the past to overcome formability challenges of AHSS. This study explores the mechanical response of DP600 steel, focusing on the influence of stress relaxation (SR), electrically assisted deformation (EAD), and their combined effects in enhancing ductility. It is shown that the combined process of applying both SR and EAD has the potential to achieve higher ductility than the individual effect. Under given conditions, it is shown that, stress relaxation contributes to 10.02% improvement and electroplasticity enhances the ductility by to 12.69%. Hybridization of SR and EAD serially maximized the improvement by 18%. The findings of the present study provide fundamental insights for synergistically combining SR and EAD for developing hybrid forming processes for dual‐phase steels with improved formability.