The present study examines the effect of the thickness, cutouts numbers, and different cutouts shapes on the ratcheting behavior of 304 steel sheets under cyclic axial loading. The cutout shapes considered here are circular, triangular, and square cutouts. The effect of the number of circular cutouts in 304 steel sheets on ratcheting behavior is investigated. The Instron 8502 device is used to perform the experiments in which the cyclic axial loading is applied to six specimens with different cutouts and thicknesses at ambient temperature. The obtained results highlight the fact that reducing the thickness and increasing the number of cutouts in the sheets are attributed to the rise in the ratcheting displacement. Accordingly, the ratcheting displacement is more striking in the sheets with triangular cutouts. Notably, a numerical analysis is considered using the isotropic/kinematic nonlinear hardening model and FEM in ABAQUS software. Since a good agreement is seen between the numerical and experimental results, the analysis conducted in this study is reliable in terms of accuracy and authenticity.
