This research has investigated the essential work of fracture (EWF) from trouser tear test of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films and their corresponding laminate using a convenient cyclic tear test method. Propagation of tear crack in these thermoplastics deflects from the initial crack path due to the material anisotropy. An improvement to a two-zone tear model for determining tear EWF was proposed for LDPE-like materials. Energy dissipation due to non-uniform bending of the trouser-legs was determined to be significant in EWF calculation of tearing and this was therefore considered in this study. To measure the tear EWF in laminates, contribution from delamination energy dissipation was accounted for.

Large displacement peel was studied for cases where a compliant substrate leads to a large value of the root rotation. An existing simplified beam model to calculate the peel fracture energy was modified to allow for a kinematic hardening beam model of the foil. The steady-state peel force and the root rotation were used as input data to the resulting analytical beam model. Test results from the literature were analysed. A more elaborate finite element model was also studied, using cohesive elements for the interface layer between the foil and the substrate. The cohesive zone parameters used were the fracture energy, the cohesive strength and a shape parameter. An optimization scheme for the cohesive zone parameters was developed and optimized against experimental steady-state peel force and root rotation. The optimization scheme was effective to characterize the cohesive parameters. The method yields similar values of fracture energy for the two peel angles, with the one for ${180}^{\circ }$ being slightly higher than for ${90}^{\circ }$. The difference in fracture energies for different peel angles suggests that the fracture energy can be mode dependent.

The hole expansion ratio (HER) observed in a standardized hole expansion test (HET) is commonly used to determine the edge fracture of steel sheets. A large variation of the measured HER restricts the practical application of the method. This study presents a systematic investigation on uncertainties in the HER of DP800 sheet material, including the hole-edge quality, pre-strain due to the hole-punching process, the friction coefficient, and the determination of fracture. An artificial neural network was trained to develop a surrogate model using a database gained from a thousand finite element simulations of the HET. Monte-Carlo simulations were performed using the trained surrogate model to characterize the distribution of the HER. Sensitivity analysis via Sobol’s indices is calculated to determine the influence of the input variables on the output. It is found that the pre-strain and pre-damage generated during the hole punching process in the shear-affected zone dominate the variation of the HER. Discussions on reducing the output’s variation are detailed. In general, these findings provide valuable insights for the determination of HER as well as the edge crack behavior of the investigated DP800 steel sheet.

In thin notched sheets under tensile loading, wrinkling appears on the sheet surface, specifically around the cracked area. This is due to local buckling and compression stresses near the crack surfaces. This study aims to numerically study the buckling behavior of a thin sheet with a central crack under tension. A numerical model of a notched sheet under tensile loading is developed using the finite element method, which considers both material and geometrical nonlinearity. To overcome the convergence problem caused by the small thickness-to-length/width ratio and to stimulate the buckling, an imperfection is defined as a small perturbation in the numerical model. Both elastic and elasto-plastic behavior are applied, and the influence of them is studied on the critical buckling stress and the post-buckling behavior of the notched sheet. Numerical results for both elastic and elasto-plastic behavior reflect that very small perturbations need more energy for the activation of buckling mode, and a higher buckling mode is predominant. The influences of different parameters, including Poisson’s ratio, yield limit, crack length-to-sheet-width ratio, and the sheet aspect ratio are also evaluated with a focus on the critical buckling stress and the buckling mode shape. With increase in Poisson’s ratio. First, the critical buckling stress reduces and then remains constant. A higher yield limit results in increases in the critical buckling stress, and no change in the buckling mode shape while adopting various crack length-to-sheet-width ratios, and the sheet aspect ratio changes the buckling mode shape.