Plane strain tension fracture at high strain rate

Abstract

Under plane stress conditions, most micromechanical and phenomenological models predict a minimum in ductility for plane strain tension stress state. Therefore, the stress state of plane strain tension plays a crucial role in many forming and crash applications and the reliable measurement of the strain to fracture for plane strain tension is particularly crucial when calibrating modern fracture initiation models. Recently, a new experimental technique has been proposed for measuring the strain to fracture for sheet metal after proportional loading under plane strain conditions. The basic configuration of the new setup includes a dihedral punch which applies out-of-plane loading onto a Nakazima-type of discshaped specimen with two symmetric holes and an outer diameter of 60 mm. In the present work, the applicability of the test is extended to high strain rates. High strain rates of about 100/s to 200/s are obtained using a drop weight tower device with an original sensor for load measurements. Quasi static tests are also performed for comparison, keeping the same specimen geometry, image recording parameters and set-up. The effective strains at fracture are compared from quasi-static to high strain rate loading for three different materials, i.e one aluminium alloy and two steels.