AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY ON THE SCALING OF PLATE CUTTING

The results of a series of static experimental tests are presented in order to clarify the scaling law governing the cutting of metal plates . The rectangular plates are made of mild steel and aluminium which ar e geometrically similar in three dimensions with a scaling factor of l ambda = 1, 1.5 and 2, approximately. From the 53 experimental results the elementary scaling law is found to be violated due to the existenc e of a crack. The energy dissipated to overcome the frictional resista nce is unexpectedly found to be dominant in the total energy required for the distortion. This might be caused by the very rough new surface s produced by the propagation of the crack. It is found that the condi tion of geometrical similarity on the plane sizes (length and width) o f plates does not affect the cutting energy. However, it does make an non-negligible difference on the distortion energy required for overco ming the frictional force. The mitigation of frictional resistance is obtained for the specimens with a larger ratio of the length to the th ickness due to the more flexible support. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Lt d. All rights reserved.