Plane strain test for metal sheet characterization

This article shows the influence of a plane strain test specimen geometry on the measurable strain field and the influence of free edge effects over the stress computation. The experimental strain field distribution is measured over the whole deformable zone of a plane strain test specimen by an optical strain gauge. The chosen material is the DC06 IF steel of 0.8 mm
thickness. The stress field is computed for several geometries at different strain levels by a Finite
Element (FE) commercial code (Samcef ®). The results show that the stress field is sensitive to the specimen’s geometry and also to the tested material (strain field behavior is independent of
material) and, based on results, an optimal specimen geometry is proposed in order to minimized
the stress computation error.