Effect of shear cutting on ductility of a dual phase steel

Both an experimental investigation with an especially designed setup and a mechanical FE analysis of the cutting process showed that for the laboratory dual phase steel investigated, cutting involves positive stress triaxiality and ductile fracture mainly due to void nucleation and coalescence at ferrite-martensite interfaces. Tensile tests on as-cut strip specimens showed a large reduction in ductility due to the presence of damage on the edges of the strips. Tensile tests on strip specimens containing short precracks and mechanical analysis showed that the cutting affected area behaves as a precrack during subsequent mechanical testing. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.