Ductile failure modeling

Ductile fracture of structural metals occurs mainly by the nucleation, growth and coalescence of voids. Here an overview of continuum models for this type of failure is given. The most widely used current framework is described and its limitations discussed. Much work has focused on extending void growth models to account for non-spherical initial void shapes and for shape changes during growth.

This includes cases of very low stress triaxiality, where the voids can close up to micro-cracks during the failure process. The void growth models have also been extended to consider the effect of plastic anisotropy, or the influence of nonlocal effects that bring a material size scale into the models.

Often the voids are not present in the material from the beginning, and realistic nucleation models are important. The final failure process by coalescence of neighboring voids is an issue that has been given much attention recently. At ductile fracture, localization of plastic flow is often important, leading to failure by a void-sheet mechanism.

Various applications are presented to illustrate the models, including welded specimens, shear tests on butterfly specimens, and analyses of crack growth.