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The fatigue behavior of thin electrical steel sheets under cyclic loading is investigated in dependence on the edge surface. Therefore, four different edge conditions are compared, whereas the edge is either laser cut, shear cut, wire cut, or polished. Strain- and stress-controlled fatigue tests are performed to determine S-N curves in the low cycle regime as well as in the high cycle regime. Microstructural data is collected by non-contacting (optical) Profilometry, Nanoindentation, X-Ray Diffraction, and Electron Backscatter Diffraction to understand the differences in fatigue life by considering surface roughness, residual stresses, hardness, and microstructure. Shear cut specimens achieve the lowest fatigue life, while the other edge conditions reach relatively similar values in the LCF regime. Crack initiation is mainly intergranular in the case of defect-free edges. This tendency has a considerable influence on the observed fatigue behavior.
The shear cutting of electrical steel sheets has a significant influence on the magnetic and mechanical material properties. Due to plastic deformation and strain hardening in the area of the punched edge, the electrical steel sheets exhibit a characteristic hardness profile. This study deals with the modelling of the resulting hardness profile by means of finite-element simulations. Elastic-plastic material properties are obtained from spherical nanoindentation testing as a function of the local hardness. In particular, representative stress-strain values are determined by applying Tabor's concept of indentation stress-strain curves. The choice of the appropriate stress- and strain-constraint factors is discussed with respect to the nanoindentation test setup used. Following this, the representative stress-strain values are analytically described to determine true stress-strain curves for the local assignment of different material models depending on the hardness. The implementation of the modelling approach in a finite-element simulation is presented for a punched electrical steel sheet specimen under monotonic loading. The simulation results are basically in good agreement with experimental data and confirm the expected influence on the mechanical material behaviour due to the shear cutting process.
The combined isotropic-kinematic hardening model enables the description of the cyclic transient elastic-plastic material behaviour of steel. However, the determination of the material model parameters and understanding of their influence on the material response can be a challenging task. This study deals with the individual steps of the material model calibration for the simulation of thin electrical steel sheets under cyclic loading. Specific recommendations are made for the determination of kinematic and isotropic hardening material parameters. In particular, the isotropic hardening evolution is described by Voce's exponential law and a simple multilinear approach. Based on the multilinear approach, which allows for different slopes in the evolution of the yield surface size, an alternative calibration of the isotropic hardening component is proposed. As a result, the presence of the yield plateau in the first half cycle can be accurately captured, while convergence issues in the material model definition for numerical simulations can be avoided. The comparison of simulated load cycles with experimental cyclic tests shows a good agreement, which indicates the suitability of the proposed material model calibration for electrical steel.
In this study, the fatigue behavior of thin electrical steel sheets under cyclic loading is investigated. Results from strain-controlled and stress-controlled fatigue tests with different specimen geometries and different test setups are presented and compared with conventional testing methods. The results imply that conventional testing methods should be adjusted for testing thin electrical steel sheets because the fatigue life depends significantly on the test setup as well as the specimen geometry. Therefore, this study proposes an improved specimen geometry and test setup for stress- and strain-controlled fatigue tests of thin electrical steel sheets depending on the desired testing parameters.