A new specimen for out-of-plane shear strength of advanced high strength steel sheets

Compared with the conventional steels, "shear fracture" is one of the main issues for advanced high strength steels (AHSS). Due to rolling, anisotropy is an intrinsic property for sheet metals. Not only the plastic responses of sheet metals but also the fracture strengths are orientation dependent. In the small radius forming process, for example, the stretch-bending deformation of sheet metals under small radius condition, the normal stress cannot be neglected. Three-dimensional loading condition constructs complex shear stress states of sheet metals especially the out-of-plane shear stress. The out-of-plane performance must be considered in order to better understand the "shear fracture" phenomenon of AHSS. Compared to in-plane shear test, the out-of-plane shear test is more difficult to carry out due to the severe restriction of the dimensions in the thickness direction. In this paper, a new specimen is presented for out-of-plane shear test. Failure of the specimen occurs in shear between two centrally located notches machined halfway through its thickness from opposing sides. Meanwhile, the finite element (FE) model and possible failure modes of this specimen are investigated in detail. At last, brief experimental results between out-of-plane shear fracture strength and the in-plane shear fracture strength are compared for DP980 sheets.