A Novel Testing Method for Uniaxial Compression of Thin-Sheet Magnesium Alloys

Abstract

This technical note presents a novel testing method for monotonic in-plane uniaxial compression of thin-sheet metals at room temperature. The novelty of the new testing method mainly lies in the thin-sheet specimen that is designed with a single-sided groove in the parallel section. Lateral support in the parallel section is required only at the back side of the specimen. The self-balance between the bending moment exerted by the groove and the normal force exerted by the lateral support prevents the buckling. The front side of the specimen is visible during testing; therefore, several methods of measuring strains are available. Finite element simulation is employed to calculate the normal and frictional forces between the specimen and lateral support. Compared with existing representative testing methods, the new method is more simply-constructed, easy-to-use and low-cost. The new testing method was applied to magnesium alloy AZ31B cast-rolled sheet and was successfully validated by comparing the stress–strain curves measured by the new method and state-of-the-art methods.