An optimization strategy for the shear specimen with cutouts considering the coordinated deformation of multiple regions

Abstract

To expand the use of shear specimens with cutouts, proposed by Shouler and Allwood (2010), for the investigation of in-plane shear-induced fracture, an optimization strategy considering the coordinated deformation of the multiple deformation regions was proposed. The effects of aspect ratios of different deformation regions on the ratio of average equivalent strain between these regions were investigated to prevent the out-of-plane buckling instability during the shear deformation. On this basis, the geometries of one-sided specimens under uniaxial tensile test, symmetric specimens under uniaxial tensile test, and symmetric specimens under Nakajima test for an 0.3 mm-thick interstitial-free (IF) steel were determined. Successful in-plane shear deformation without out-of-plane instability was experimentally achieved on the optimized specimens using uniaxial tensile test and Nakajima test, and near pure shear states were obtained.