Influence of cutting clearance and punch geometry on the stress state in small punch test

The presented paper aims to characterize the damage and fracture behavior of HX340LAD Micro-Alloyed steels using small punch test. Variations with respect to punch geometries and cutting clearance are made to describe the damage behavior of the material under different loading conditions. Experimental investigations are conducted to identify the crack initiation in the specimens. Furthermore, the numerical FEM simulations are performed to identify the stress state at crack initiation. It is shown that different stress states from shear to biaxial tension can be achieved by changing the geometries of punch and varying the cutting clearance. Moreover, it is presented how changing the configurations can influence the stress state variables: Triaxiality and lode angle parameter.