Experimental and Numerical Analysis of an In-Plane Shear Specimen Designed for Ductile Fracture Studies

An in-plane shear specimen made of dual phase steel designed for ductile fracture studies is presented and then analyzed experimentally and numerically. In the experiment, digital image correlation (DIC) technique is utilized to measure the deformation of the specimen. Based on the implicit nonlinear FE solver Abaqus/Standard, numerical analysis of the specimen is performed by using plane stress and solid elements respectively. The elongation of the specimen’s gauge length and the shear strain distribution within the shear zone are compared between the experimental and numerical results and a general good agreement is obtained. Thereafter, based on calculated results, the stress state of the shear zone is investigated in detail. It is shown that the shear stress is dominant within the shear zone despite of the emergence of normal stresses. The deformation is concentrated in the shear zone, where the incipient fracture is most likely to occur. The stress triaxiality and the Lode parameter at the fracture initiation are found to be maintained at a relatively low level, which implies that the stress state achieved by the specimen is close to pure shear. The present study demonstrates that the proposed in-plane shear specimen is suitable for investigation of the fracture behavior of high strength materials under shear stress states.