j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084

j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ j mat pr ot ec

Die fatigue life improvement through the rational
design of metal-forming system
M.W. Fu

, J. Lu, W.L. Chan

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 12 May 2007
Received in revised form
14 February 2008
Accepted 15 March 2008
Keywords:
Die fatigue life
SN approach
CAE simulation
Integrated product and process
design
a b s t r a c t
In metal-forming industries, die is an important tool for fabrication of metal-formed prod-
ucts. Die service life, which is dened as the maximum product number produced by die
before it fails, and die performance directly determine the quality of metal-formed prod-
uct and production cost. In cold forming process, die service life basically refers to the die
fatigue life. The die fatigue life is determined by the design of metal-formed product and
die, forming process conguration, die stress and the entire metal-forming system. In this
paper, a methodology for optimization of die fatigue life is developed via the rational design
of metal-forming system in such a way that the die stress is optimal and further the die
design in terms of its service life is the best. To realize this thought, the SN approach is
employed for evaluation of die fatigue life. The die stress is rst identied via the integrated
simulation of billet plastic owand the die deformation during the forming process. The die
stress is then optimized via the rational design of the combination of metal-formed prod-
uct, die and process conguration. The optimal die life is thus determined. Furthermore, a
framework for implementation of this methodology is developed and case studies are used
for verication and validation of the developed methodology.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Due to the increasing competition in global markets, the prot
in metal-forming industries is pushed to the marginal or limit
level. Howto cut cost, improve productivity andenhance prod-
uct quality decide whether the companies can keep their
leading edge and competitiveness in the severe competitive
marketplaces. Die is an important tool for deformation or
fabrication of metal-formed products. Die performance and
service life, which is dened as the number of metal-formed
parts produced by die before it fails, decide product quality,
time-to-market and production cost. The optimal design of
die service life has become aneffective solutionfor addressing
the above-listed issues.
Die design and manufacturing are important steps in
metal-forming product development. Without suitable die,

Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 5527.

E-mail address: mmmwfu@polyu.edu.hk (M.W. Fu).
metal-forming processes are oftencrippled or rendered totally
inefcient. To have the die which has long service life, the
design and manufacture of die must be well conducted. There
are manyfactors whichaffect die service life (Lange et al., 1992;
Fu et al., 2006; Tong et al., 2005; Fu et al., 2008). Fig. 1 shows
these factors fromdie design, die geometry and material, heat
treatment condition, billet conditions and material, and fur-
ther to manufacturing andtribological conditions betweenthe
die and workpiece (Falk et al., 2001). Therefore, howto system-
atical and integral design of die together with metal-formed
product, forming process sequence and the detailed process
conditions is a non-trivial issue.
Traditionally, die design is based more on heuristic know-
how and experience acquired through trial-and-error than
deep scientic analysis and calculation. This kind of prod-
uct development paradigm cannot ensure that the die service
0924-0136/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2008.03.016
j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084 1075
Fig. 1 The factors affecting die service life (Lange et al.,
1992).
life is optimally designed as the interaction and interplay
among the above-mentioned affecting factors on die service
life is difcult to quantitatively represent and determin based
on the traditional experiences and know-how. To have good
die performance and service life, the die should be optimally
designed and precisely fabricated. On the other hand, die
materials need to be well selected and heat-treated. In die ser-
vice stage, the working conditions andworking processes need
to be well determined.
To realize this goal, industries and academia have pro-
vided a lot of efforts to conduct the extensive researches in
this area. Fu et al. (2006) has developed the simulation-based
die fatigue life assessment methodology based on stress-life
and strain-life (SN) approaches (Tong et al., 2005; Fu et al.,
2008). The methodology provides good approaches for predict-
ing die fatigue life. Falk et al. (2001) used different concepts
including local stress, local strain and local energy approaches
to estimating die service life. As the approaches need to
determine the local stress and strain of the die during the
forming process, the CAE simulation technology is employed
for revealing the instantaneous stress and strain of die in their
research. Knoerr et al. (1994) adopted the fatigue techniques
for identifying the root-cause of fatigue failure and devel-
oped a strain-based approach for estimation of die fatigue
life. The approach used the elasticplastic analysis model to
determine the maximum strain amplitude and further ana-
lyze the fatigue life based on the damage analysis concept.
In addition, Vassilopoulos used articial neural network for
establishing the SN curve of composite materials in such
a way that only 4050% of experimental data is needed for
construction of the SN curve compared to the conventional
approach. The expensive and time-consuming fatigue experi-
ments can thus be signicantly reduced (Vassilopolulos et al.,
2007). Furthermore, many other effects have also been pro-
vided in modeling of fatigue behaviors, failure mechanism
and probability of die (Pedersen, 2000; Srivastava et al., 2004;
Geiger and Falk, 2001; Arif et al., 2003; Bernhart et al., 1999;
Cosenza et al., 2004; Park and Colton, 2006). Some other are
focused on investigation of the die stress in forming process
and the methods for die life improvement (Joun et al., 2002;
Fu and Shang, 1995; Joun et al., 2002; Brucelle and Bernhart,
1999). All of these efforts are good exploration on die life
assessment. Despite of the fact that there is no general way
to increase die service life, there are some tactics, which do
helpdie service life improvement. Howto identify anddevelop
these tactics needs to systematically correlate the die ser-
vice life with various inuencing factors and mathematically
represent the correlation to facilitate the optimal design of die
service life.
In this paper, the notion of the metal-forming system
design is proposed for systematic consideration of the effect
of many affecting factors and the whole forming system on
die fatigue service life. First of all, the detailed intent of metal-
forming system is dened. The integrated simulation of the
whole forming system is presented. Through the rational
design of the affecting factors, the entire forming system and
the conguration of design scenarios for forming system, the
interaction and interplay of the detailed affecting factors on
die service life is systematically simulated and investigated
through the integrated simulation approach presented in the
paper. Uponthe CAE simulation, the deformationloadis deter-
mined and the critical stage at which the deformation load is
the maximum is identied. The instantaneous maximum die
stress at the critical stage in a service cycle is then revealed
and identied. The service cycle here is dened as a periodic
process for producing a part inthe forming system. By employ-
ing the SN approach, the die service life is nally predicted in
such a way that the optimal design of the die service life can
be determined through the comparison of the predicted die
fatigue life for different design scenarios. To implement this
thought, a framework is presented. The rationale, validity and
the robustness of the developed methodology are veried by
case studies.
2. Methodology
2.1. Die fatigue life assessment
Die is a tool used for forming of the deformed products. When
die is used for forming of product, it undergoes cyclic stresses
which can be represented in Fig. 2. The service life of die is
dened as the number of these cycles. It is well known that die
is installed in a forming machine. In the one stroke of forming
machine, one or more parts canbe producedby the die. The die
Fig. 2 Die service cycles and characteristic stresses.
1076 j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084
Fig. 3 SN diagram.
is subjected to the cyclic loading in forming of the deformed
parts, as shown in Fig. 2.
In the cyclic stress, there are four characteristic stresses
which need to be extracted for the assessment of die service
life based on SN approach. These stresses are designated as
the maximum, minimum, mean and amplitude stresses. They
are represented as o
max
, o
min
, o
m
, and o
a
, respectively. Among
them, o
max
and o
min
refer to the maximum and minimum
stresses, respectively. o
m
and o
a
, on the other hand, are the
mean stress and the stress amplitude, as shown in Fig. 2. The
relationship of these four stresses can be formulated as
o
a
=
o
max
o
min
2
(1)
o
m
=
o
max
+o
min
2
(2)
To establish the relationship of die fatigue life with its stress
status and the material property conguration of the die,
the following Goodman equation (Bannantine et al., 1990) is
employed and represented as
o
a
S
e
+
o
m
S
u
= 1 (3)
The Goodman equation represents the relationship of die
fatigue service life with o
a
, o
m
and the material properties,
viz., endurance limit S
e
and ultimate strength S
u
. Based on
the equation, a diagram to represent the correlation of cyclic
stress and fatigue cycle life, viz., SN diagram, can be con-
structed. From the SN diagram, the die fatigue life can be
determined based on the given amplitude and mean stresses.
Fig. 3 illustrates the SN diagram for a given mean stress.
In this research, the die material is M2. The SN diagram
of this material can be referred to reference (CRP, 1981), which
provides the detailed curves for different mean stresses and
amplitude stresses. Fig. 4 shows the SN diagram of M2 and it
provides a basis for evaluation of die fatigue service life in this
research.
2.2. Metal-forming system
The metal-forming systemconsists of process, designed prod-
uct, die, materials, preform(billet), equipment and the friction
condition in-between the billet and die. The design of the
entire forming systemis to create the detailedcontent of these
Fig. 4 SN diagram of M2 (CRP, 1981).
components or congure the information needed. The details
include
(1) Product design: Geometry, shape and features.
(2) Die: Die structure, component geometry and tting rela-
tionship.
(3) Process: Process routing and operation sequence.
(4) Equipment: Machine type, tonnage andworking conditions.
(5) Material and properties: Material selection and behavior
models.
(6) Tribology: Friction between die and billet.
(7) Billet: Billet geometry and shape.
In this research, the product design, die design and per-
form design are considered as three design variables which
affect the die service life. The process is cold forming and
the equipment is whatever which can perform the cold forg-
ing process, viz., either hydraulic press or mechanical press.
As the material is pre-dened, the properties are determined
already. Inaddition, the frictionconditionbetweenthe die and
billet is also pre-selected. Regarding the perform shape, it is
also an important design variable. In this research, the billet is
a cylinder andits geometry is determinedbasedonthe volume
needed for fabrication of the designed products.
2.3. Integrated simulation of metal-forming system
The die service life is predicted by SNapproach. The die stress
in forming process is identied via the integrated simulation
of billet plastic ow and dies elastic deformation, which is
assumed in this research. Therefore, the applicability of the
integrated FEM simulation is suitable for the design of cold
forging process and die fatigue service life. The simulation
of billet adopts a ow-type formulation, which can take dif-
ferent forms but essentially is based on the consideration of
plastically ow of metal. The plastic ow behaviors can be
represented as the following function (Fu and Luo, 1992):
=

V
0
E(

) dv

S
F
F

dS +

V
0
z
ii
dV (4)
j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084 1077
where is the plastic potential, E(

) is the work function, S

F
is the surface on which traction is prescribed, F

is the traction
vector, U

is the velocity vector, z is the Lagrangean multiplier,

and V
0
is the volume of the deforming body.
The funtional in Eq. (4) is for the entire deforming body.
With discretization of Eq. (4), the functional can be approxi-
mated by the following equation:

m

j=1

j
(u

j
. z
j
) (5)
where
j
is the functionof the jthelement, andu

j
andz
j
are the
nodal velocities and Lagrangean multiplier of the jth element,
respectively. According to the stational condition, it is found
that the following equations exist
m

j=1

j
u

j
= 0 and
m

j=1

j
z
j
= 0 (6)
Eq. (6) is non-linear after discretization. To linearize it, the
NewtonRaphson approach or direct iteration method can be
used. After linealization, the following linear equations can be
obtained.
(7)
In Eq. (7), the sparseness of the stiffness matrix can be utilized
insolving the equation. The approachusing this characteristic
for solving Eq. (7) is the so-called sparce approach.
In NewtonRaphson approach, the initinal solution or initi-
nal value for all the nodal velocities needs to be pre-given.
With the initinal solution or pre-given U
o
, the solution for the
rst loading step can be determined by iteration. In the iter-
ation process, if the velocity and force norms meet certain
criterion, the iteration of the specic loading step is consid-
ered as convergence. Taking the velocity as an instance, if the
following criteron is met, the iteration is converged.
||LU
n
||
||U
n1
||
(8)
where ||LU
n
|| is the Euclideanvector normfor the nthiteration
and is a pre-dened small positive number, such as 10
5
.
In the plastic FEM, Eq. (7) is used to determine the velocity
increment of the nth iteration in the deforming body or billet,
and insucha way that the velocity, strainrate, foming loading,
effective stress and strain, and the other state variables of the
deforming body can be determined.
The instantaneous die stress state in forming process is
the focus in this paper. The above presented FEM approach
is for simulation of the plastic ow of deforming body. To
reveal the die stress, the elastic FEM approach are used. In
die stress analysis, whether the stress can be accurately iden-
tied depends on the accurate determination of the boundary
conditions of the die, which is in turn decided by the sim-
Fig. 5 Integrated simulation of workpiece plastic ow and
die elastic deformation.
ulation of the deforming body. Fig. 5 illustrates an intergated
simuationframework betweenthe workpiece anddie inwhich
the billet deformination and die stress are simulated and ana-
lyzed simultaneously. In each loading step, the state variables
of the billet are determined. They are then used to determine
the boundary conditions (BCS) including geometrical BCS and
physical BCS and the constraints for die stress analysis. With
these input information, the instantaneous die stress can be
efciently revealed and explored, which provides the basis for
die fatigue life assessment.
2.4. Die fatigue life assessment
Fig. 6 shows the paradigm for die fatigue life prediction and
assessment. For a design scenario of deformed part and form-
ing system, the integratedsimulationof workpiece plastic ow
and die deformation is rst conducted. Prior to the simula-
tion, the modeling and representation of the whole forming
system is conducted to generate the physical, mathematical
and numerical models for the CAE simulation system. Basi-
cally, the physical model idealizes the deformation behavior
of the system and abstracts it to comply with certain physical
theory with assumptions. The mathematical model species
the mathematical equations suchas the differential equations
in FEM analysis the physical model should follow. In current
off-the-shelf and domain-specic CAE systems, the mathe-
matical model is usually built in the systems. But users still
need to specify some detailed data and information such as
boundary conditions and constraints. The numerical model,
on the other hand, describes the elements types, mesh den-
sity and solution parameters. The solution parameters further
provide detailed calculation tolerances, error bounds, and
1078 j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084
Fig. 6 Die fatigue life assessment paradigm.
the iteration and convergence criteria in CAE simulation pro-
cess.
Upon the completion of simulation, there are two sets of
data which are critical for die fatigue life assessment. One
is the deformation load and the other is the instantaneous
die stress. Since the deformation load varies in the deforma-
tion cycle, the maximum deformation load corresponds to a
critical fatigue stage at which the die fatigue failure has the
greatest possibility. In assessment of the die fatigue life, the
die stress at this critical fatigue stage is neededto be extracted.
In this paper, the effective stress is used to determine the
fatigue location in die. Based on this assumption, the maxi-
mum and minimum effective stresses of die in one loading
cycle is retrieved and the amplitude and mean stresses is
then determined. The die fatigue life will then be determined
based on SN diagram. For different design scenarios, the cor-
responding die fatigue life is determined and thus the best
design scenario can be identied via comparison of the die
fatigue life.
3. Design of forming system and
simulation
To illustrate the above-proposed methodology for die fatigue
life optimization via rational design of forming system, a part
as shown in Fig. 7 is used as a case study. The case will show
how the optimal die service life is identied via the rational
design of metal-forming system and the integration simula-
tion of the forming system.
In Fig. 7(a), it shows a nal product geometries and this
product can be formed by metal-forming process. To convert
the nal product geometry to plastic-deformed part, a patch-
up is needed for one operation of metal forming to produce
this part. However, the different dimensions and locations of
the patch-up constitute different part designs and forming
systems, which have different die service life and process per-
formance. The focus of this paper is to investigate the best
design of die and forming system.
3.1. Design of metal-forming system
To fully explore the potential design alternatives for forming
the product, three factors are considered. The rst one is the
patch-up dimension of the deformed part as the forming sys-
tem cannot form a product with a through hole as shown in
Fig. 7. The patch-up is needed in the extrusion of a cylinder
billet to desired shape of the product. The second one is patch-
up location and the third is punch geometry and shape. The
shape of the punch could be at punch or bevel one. Based
on these three factors, the different design scenarios about
the deformed product, die and the cylinder billet volume and
its dimensions can be gured out. Table 1 presents the 12
design scenarios through the combination of the above differ-
ent design variables. For the rst design scenario as shown in
Table 1, the billet is cylinder and its dimension is 37.614.7
based on volume constancy of the billet and the deformed
part.
3.2. Integrated simulation of forming system
To reveal the die stress in the different design scenario, the
simultaneous simulation of billet plastic ow and the elastic
deformation of die are conducted. First of all, the designed
metal-forming system is modeled in a commercial CAD sys-
temand then converted into a data exchange format in such a
way that they canbe importedintothe CAE simulationsystem.
Regarding the material behavior of the forming system,
the punch material is M2 and is considered as a purely
elastic body during the forming process. The elastic module
is 250,000MPa and poison ratio , is 0.3. In this research,
no temperature effect has been considered. For the billet
Fig. 7 A case study.
j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084 1079
material, the following material relationship is employed
o = 150
0.1
+547 (9)
where o is effective stress (MPa) and is effective strain.
In addition, the friction between the die and billet follows
the shear friction model, which is represented as
t = mK (10)
Table 1 Different design scenarios (dimension in mm)
1080 j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084
Table 1 (Continued)
where m is the friction factor while K is the shear strength of
the billet material. m is equal to 0.1 in this research.
3.3. Procedure for extraction of simulation results
The integrated simulations are conducted for the above 12
design scenarios by using the material models in Section 3.2.
Since the stress distribution of the die is not uniform, the
fatigue will initiate at the severe stress location, which is also
the potential fatigue damage area. To determine this fatigue
stress of die, the following procedure is adopted for extraction
of the simulation results.
(1) Determination of the maximum deformation load: In the form-
ing process, the deformation load varies. However, there is
a maximum deformation load in each deformation cycle,
j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084 1081
which determines the die service life. For the given design
scenario, the geometry of punch is xed. Therefore, the
higher the deformation load, the higher stress induced in
the punch. The maximum deformation load would corre-
spond to the maximum stress in the punch. On the other
hand, the die service life is very sensitive to deforma-
tion load. A subtle reduction of the die loading, which is
equal to the deformation load, can increase the die ser-
vice life up to 10-fold if the die loading is near to the fatigue
limit. Throughsimulationof billet plastic deformation, the
change of deformation load in the entire forming process
is identied and further the deformation state of the max-
imum deformation load is determined. The status of the
maximumdeformationwill be usedto determine the most
severe die stress for fatigue life assessment.
(2) Identication of the potential fatigue location: Under the max-
imum deformation load, the stress of the die will be
the most severe condition. Under this condition, the die
will have a non-uniform stress distribution. The effective
stress will be used as a criterion to determine the poten-
tial fatigue location. The potential locationis locatedat the
place where the effective stress is maximum.
(3) Extraction of the maximum effective stress: From the most
stress severe location, the maximum effective stress
is identied. When the die is used for forming, the
original stress state is zero as it does not have any
pre-stress condition (no shrinking t condition in this
case). On the other hand, the fatigue is more related
to the mean stress and the amplitude stress based on
the Goodmans equation, the mean stress and amplitude
stress of the effective stress will be used for fatigue life
assessment.
4. Result analysis and discussion
Fig. 8 shows the deformed billet and the deformation load in
case I. Inthe gure, Step158 is the simulationloading step. In
this research, each simulation-loading step is the 0.1-mm dis-
placement. Step 158 would mean that the stroke of punch is
Fig. 8 The deformed billet and the deformation load in case 1.
Fig. 9 The deformed billet and the deformation load in case 2.
1082 j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084
Fig. 10 Potential fatigue location in case 1.
Fig. 11 Potential fatigue location in case 2.
15.8mm at this loading stage. Furthermore, from the gure, it
can be seen that the maximum deformation load is located at
the last deformation stage. From the simulation point of view,
the simulation step is 158. The deformation load is 127tons.
Fig. 9 shows the simulation results of case II.
Based on the stage at which the deformation load is the
maximum, the punch stress is investigated. It is found that
the potential fatigue location is located at the radius corner in
the second shoulder of the punch when the deformation load
is the maximum. Dening a tracking point at point P1, the
effective stress at the point can be identied. Fig. 10 shows the
potential fatigue location in the punch, the dened tracking
point and the effective stress distribution in the forming
processes in case I. Similarly, Fig. 11 shows the similar results
in case II.
Fig. 12 shows the stress varies cyclically in the course of die
service. To produce a product, the die undergoes a cyclic stress.
This cyclic stress is used to determine the potential fatigue life
of die.
Tables 2 and 3 summarize the results for the 12 different
design scenarios. The simulation results include the deforma-
tion load and the effective stress at the tracking point which
Fig. 12 The cyclic stress in forming process.
j ournal of materi als processi ng technology 2 0 9 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 10741084 1083
Table 2 The simulation results for cases 16
Case 1 H6
(bottom)
Case 2 H6
(mid)
Case 3 H6
(top)
Case 4 H4
(bottom)
Case 5 H4
(mid)
Case 6 H4
(top)
Deformation load (ton) 127 128 130 122 134 131
Effect stress at point P1 1770 1800 1630 1600 1810 1690
o
a
(MPa) 885 900 815 800 905 845
o
m
(MPa) 885 900 815 800 905 845
Expected fatigue life 2750 2300 4200 4800 2280 3600
Table 3 The simulation results for cases 712
Case 7 h610
(bottom)
Case 8 h610
(mid)
Case 9 h610
(top)
Case 10 h410
(bottom)
Case 11 h410
(mid)
Case 12 h410
(top)
Deformation load (Ton) 111 121 116 119 139 117
Effect stress at point P1 1510 1590 1450 1620 1880 1620
o
a
(MPa) 755 795 725 810 940 810
o
m
(MPa) 755 795 725 810 940 810
Expected fatigue life 7800 4700 9000 4500 1600 4500
is located at the potential fatigue area. Mean and amplitude
stresses are then derived and are also included in the table.
In this research, the die is supposed to be an elastic body. No
residual stress and pre-applied stress are considered in eval-
uation of die life. o
a
is thus same as o
m
. This can be found in
Tables 2 and 3.
Based on the SN diagram as shown in Fig. 4, the expected
fatigue life can be expected through the interpolation of the
available curves in the gure and determine the die fatigue
life. In Fig. 4, the vertical axis is amplitude stress o
a
and the
horizontal axis is fatigue cycle, viz., fatigue life. For the given
mean stress and amplitude stress, it needs to draw a horizon-
tal line fromvertical axis andinterpolate it basedonthe curves
of specic o
m
. The nal fatigue life is determined based on the
line from the interpolated stress point in the 2D plane.
From Tables 2 and 3, it can be found that the best design
scenario is case 9 where the expected die fatigue life is 9000. It
means that the die canundergo9000 cycles before it fails. From
Table 1, it is found that the patch-up of 6mm is located at the
top of the smaller interior hole in the part. This would make
the metal ow in backward extrusion and forward extrusion
modes easily. In addition, the punch has a conic tip, which
would facilitate the deformation of metal. All of these lead to
the lowest stress in the punch and thus the punch has the
longest service life.
5. Conclusions
Die service life is affectedbymanyfactors relatedtodie design,
process determination and parameter conguration, material
conguration and the entire forming system. To optimize the
die service life, not only the rational design of die is neces-
sary, but the entire forming system needs to well designed
as well. To investigate how the entire forming system design,
including product design and process determination affects
the die fatigue service life, a methodology is proposed in this
paper, whichhelps to determine the die service life via rational
design of metal-forming systemand CAE simulation. The case
study shows the detailed procedure of the proposed method-
ology and how the die fatigue life is assessed. For the given
case study, the optimal design scenario is identied. The best
design case has the conic tip of punch and the patch-up is
on the top of the smaller interior hole. Furthermore, the ef-
ciency and validity of the developed methodology is veried.
This design digital paradigm would save design and manu-
facturing lead-times of die and forming system design and
signicantly reduce the experimental tryout in real product
development.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University for the research grant G-YF67 and BB90 to support
this research.
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