The determination of the in-plane shear characteristics of aluminum alloys

The test method detailed in ASTM Standard Test Method for Sheer Testing of Thin Aluminum Sheet Alloy Products (B 831) approximates the conditions of p ure shear. The newly proposed test regime removes the rigid body rotation a ssociated with pure shear and hence creates a simple shear deformation. The test also makes available an additional volume of empirical data by facili tating the measurement of both shear stress and strain throughout the test. The proposed test procedure was used to analyze the directionality of simp le shear deformation in an aerospace 2024-T3 aluminum alloy. The shear yiel d strength determined using the newly proposed method was found to be appro ximately half of the uniaxial yield strength. The orthotropic response in s hear was seen to differ from that exhibited during uniaxial testing. The st ress-strain response in simple shear also illustrated the effect of the def ormation restrictions through the appearance of serrated yielding.