Tension–Shear Experimental Analysis and Fracture Models Calibration on Q235 Steel

Tension–shear loading is a common loading condition in steel structures during the earthquake shaking. To study ductile fracture in structural steel under multiple stress states, experimental investigations on the different fracture mechanisms in Chinese Q235 steel were conducted. Different tension–shear loading conditions achieved by using six groups of inclined notch butterfly configurations covering pure shear, tension–shear and pure tension cases. Numerical simulations were carried out for all the specimens to determine the stress and strain fields within the critical sections. Two tension–shear fracture models were calibrated based on the hybrid experimental–numerical procedure. The equivalent fracture strain obtained from the round bar under tensile loading was used for evaluating these two models. The results indicated that the tension–shear criterion as a function of the shear fracture parameter had better performance in predicting the fracture initiation of structural steel under different loading conditions.