Finite Element Analysis of Notch Depth and Angle in Notch Shear Cutting of Stainless-Steel Sheet

Abstract

Piercing is a crucial process in the sheet metal forming industry, and the surface quality of the pierced part is an important parameter that defines the overall quality of the product. However, obtaining a good surface quality is a challenging task that depends on the effect of several process parameters and necessitates the use of non-conventional procedures. Notch shear cutting is a relatively new progressive approach in which the workpiece is indented with a notch form with a predefined notch angle and depth, and then the indented workpiece is subjected to conventional piercing. In this study, conventional piercing and notch shear cutting processes were experimentally performed on 1.4301 stainless steel sheet of 2 mm thickness. Then, finite element (FE) analyses were conducted utilizing Deform-2D software. After ensuring that the experimental and simulation works were consistent with each other, the FE analysis of notch shear cutting was carried out for three distinct notch depths (15 %, 30 %, and 60 % of the workpiece thickness) and six different notch angles (10º, 20º, 30º, 40º, 50º, and 60º). Investigations were performed on shear zone length distributions, which are direct indications of the surface quality on sheared workpieces, crack propagation angles, and required cutting loads. The best surface quality was obtained when the notch angle was set to 50º and the notch depth was set to 15 % of the workpiece thickness. It was also observed that notch angle and notch depth had a certain level of influence on required cutting load.