Development of simple shear test for the measurement of work hardening

The simple shear test achieves large deformation without plastic instability in comparison with the uniaxial tensile test or the plane strain tensile test. However, the strain measurement can be very time consuming if the appropriate apparatus is not available. Moreover, the effect of specimen geometry on the measured work hardening has not been well investigated. The present work describes a simple shear test and a new strain extensometer based on a rotary angle transducer. FEM simulations and experimental work were carried out to evaluate the effect of specimen geometry on shear strain distribution, to study the effect of material parameters on the measured work hardening, and to correct the edge effect based on the geometry of test specimen. The correction method proposed for the simple shear test was validated experimentally. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.