Tenacity of Sheet Steel ST37-2 by the Essential Work of Fracture Method

This work consists of the characterization of a steel sheet fracture by the essential work of fracture method. The study required the conception and the realization of a strain sensor which allows measuring the deformations in specific points of the specimen. After an experimental verification of the May and Cotterell's deformation model, tensile load-displacement curves are plotted for different ligament lengths. The specific essential fracture work value (we = 191.6 kJ.m-2) obtained by the extrapolation, to a zero ligament length, of the equation wf(L) describing the evolution of the specific total fracture work is very close to that calculated by the Wells's method (we = 199.4 kJ.m-2). Concerning the minimum specific essential work of fracture, it represents approximately 80% of the specific essential work of fracture value (wemin= 154 kJ.m-2).