Development of the Notched Shear Test

The notched shear test (NST) will be proposed to measure shear strength of paperboard by utilizing standard in-plane tensile testing equipment. The test is a further development of the double notch shear test specimen; where plastic lamination has been utilized. With the new test setup it becomes possible to measure shear strength profile in the thickness direction of paperboard. As a spin-off of the NST also the strip shear test (SST) was suggested. The SST test can be used as a quick measure of shear strength. It is shown that the SST measurement correlates well with the traditional rigid shear test (RST). In order to verify that the NST specimen failed due to shear stresses, finite element simulations were performed. The simulations showed that the shear zone had a uniform shear stress field at the time of failure. Moreover, with the finite element simulations it was also possible to predict the force-displacement curve.