Finite deformation analysis of mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity: torsion and crack tip field

A finite deformation theory of mechanism-based strain gradient (MSG) plasticity is developed in this paper based on the Taylor dislocation model. The theory ensures the proper decomposition of deformation in order to exclude the volumetric deformation from the strain gradient tensor since the latter represents the density of geometrically necessary dislocations. The solution for a thin cylinder under large torsion is obtained. The numerical method is used to investigate the finite deformation crack tip field in MSG plasticity. It is established that the stress level around a crack tip in MSG plasticity is significantly higher than its counterpart (i.e. HRR field) in classical plasticity.     

Fracture of bicrystal metal/ceramic interfaces: A study via the mechanism-based strain gradient crystal plasticity theory

Two continuum mechanical models of crystal plasticity theory namely, conventional crystal plasticity theory and mechanism-based crystal plasticity theory, are used to perform a comparative study of stresses that are reached at and ahead of the crack tip of a bicrystal niobium/alumina specimen. Finite element analyses are done for a stationary crack tip and growing cracks using a cohesive modelling approach. Using mechanism-based strain gradient crystal plasticity theory the stresses reached ahead of the crack tip are found to be two times larger than the stresses obtained from conventional crystal plasticity theory. Results also show that strain gradient effects strongly depend on the intrinsic material length to the size of plastic zone ratio (l/R₀). It is found that the larger the (l/R₀) ratio, the higher the stresses reached using mechanism-based strain gradient crystal plasticity theory. An insight into the role of cohesive strength and work of adhesion in macroscopic fracture is also presented which can be used by experimentalists to design better bimaterials by varying cohesive strength and work of adhesion.     

A physically based gradient plasticity theory

The intent of this work is to derive a physically motivated mathematical form for the gradient plasticity that can be used to interpret the size effects observed experimentally. The step of translating from the dislocation-based mechanics to a continuum formulation is explored. This paper addresses a possible, yet simple, link between the Taylor’s model of dislocation hardening and the strain gradient plasticity. Evolution equations for the densities of statistically stored dislocations and geometrically necessary dislocations are used to establish this linkage. The dislocation processes of generation, motion, immobilization, recovery, and annihilation are considered in which the geometric obstacles contribute to the storage of statistical dislocations. As a result, a physically sound relation for the material length scale parameter is obtained as a function of the course of plastic deformation, grain size, and a set of macroscopic and microscopic physical parameters. Comparisons are made of this theory with experiments on micro-torsion, micro-bending, and micro-indentation size effects.     

The crack tip zone shielding effect for ductile particle reinforced brittle materials

The crack tip zone shielding effect for the ductile particle reinforced brittle materials is analyzed by using a micromechanics constitutive theory. The theory is developed here to determine the elastoplastic constitutive behavior of the composite. The elastoplastic particles, with isotropic or kinematical hardening, are uniformly dispersed in the brittle elastic matrix. The method proposed is based on the Mori-Tanaka's concept of average stress in the composite. The macroscopic yielding condition and the incremental stress strain relation of the composite during plastic deformation are explicity given in terms of the macroscopioc applied stress and the microstructural parameters of the composite such as the volume fraction and yield stress of ductile particles, elastic constants of the two phases, etc. Finally, the contribution of the plastic deformation in the particles near a crack tip to the toughening of the composite is evaluated. The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China     

AN INVESTIGATION ON ASYMPTOTIC NEAR-TIP FIELDS OF DYNAMIC CRACK IN AN ELASTIC-PERFECTLY PLASTIC COMPRESSIBLE MATERIAL

The stress and deformation fields near the tip of a mode-I dynamic crack steadilypropagating in an elastic-perfectly plastic compressible material are considered under plane strain condi-tions. Within the framework of infinitesimal displacement gradient theory, the material is character-ized by the Von Mises yield criterion and the associated J_2 flow theory of plasticity. Through rigorousmathematical analysis, this paper eliminates the possibilities of elastic unloading and continuousasymptotic fields with singular deformation, and then constructs a fully continuous and boundedasymptotic stress and strain field. It is found that in this solution there exists a parameter (?)_0 whichcannot be determined by asymptotic analysis but may characterize the effect of the far field. Lastly thevariations of continuous stresses, velocities and strains around the crack tip are given numerically fordifferent values of (?)_0.     

Analysis of dynamic growth of a tensile crack in an elastic-plastic material

The influence of inertia on the stress and deformation fields near the tip of a crack growing in an elastic-plastic material is studied. The material is characterized by the von Mises yield criterion and J₂ flow theory of plasticity. The crack grows steadily under plane strain conditions in the tensile opening mode. Features of the stress and deformation state at points near the moving crack tip are described for elastic-perfectly plastic response and for several crack propagation speeds. It is found that inertia has a significant effect on the elastic-plastic response of material particles near the crack tip, and that elastic unloading may occur behind the crack tip for higher speeds. The relationship between the applied crack driving force, represented by a remote stress intensity factor, and the crack tip speed is examined on the basis of a critical crack tip opening angle growth criterion. The calculated result is compared with dynamic fracture toughness versus crack speed data for a 4340 steel.     

Mechanism-based strain gradient crystal plasticity—I. Theory

We have been developing the theory of mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity (MSG) to model size-dependent plastic deformation at micron and submicron length scales. The core idea has been to incorporate the concept of geometrically necessary dislocations into the continuum plastic constitutive laws via the Taylor hardening relation. Here we extend this effort to develop a mechanism-based strain gradient theory of crystal plasticity. In this theory, an effective density of geometrically necessary dislocations for a specific slip plane is introduced via a continuum analog of the Peach-Koehler force in dislocation theory and is incorporated into the plastic constitutive laws via the Taylor relation.     

位错、裂纹与断裂

本文评述近些年来在位错、裂纹与断裂方面的研究进展.内容主要包括:①以屈服强度温度依赖性为例,讨论力学性能的结构敏感性,使其对位错芯结构与塑性之间的关系有一定的认识;②纯弹性断裂总是极少的,因之在加载应力作用下,裂纹顶端总是存在着或大或小的塑性区,存在着裂纹与位错的交互作用.这里以我们自己的工作为主,重点讨论裂端位错过程的研究结果.      

Intergranular strain evolution near fatigue crack tips in polycrystalline metals

The deformation field near a steady fatigue crack includes a plastic zone in front of the crack tip and a plastic wake behind it, and the magnitude, distribution, and history of the residual strain along the crack path depend on the stress multiaxiality, material properties, and history of stress intensity factor and crack growth rate. An in situ, full-field, non-destructive measurement of lattice strain (which relies on the intergranular interactions of the inhomogeneous deformation fields in neighboring grains) by neutron diffraction techniques has been performed for the fatigue test of a Ni-based superalloy compact tension specimen. These microscopic grain level measurements provided unprecedented information on the fatigue growth mechanisms. A two-scale model is developed to predict the lattice strain evolution near fatigue crack tips in polycrystalline materials. An irreversible, hysteretic cohesive interface model is adopted to simulate a steady fatigue crack, which allows us to generate the stress/strain distribution and history near the fatigue crack tip. The continuum deformation history is used as inputs for the micromechanical analysis of lattice strain evolution using the slip-based crystal plasticity model, thus making a mechanistic connection between macro- and micro-strains. Predictions from perfect grain-boundary simulations exhibit the same lattice strain distributions as in neutron diffraction measurements, except for discrepancies near the crack tip within about one-tenth of the plastic zone size. By considering the intergranular damage, which leads to vanishing intergranular strains as damage proceeds, we find a significantly improved agreement between predicted and measured lattice strains inside the fatigue process zone. Consequently, the intergranular damage near fatigue crack tip is concluded to be responsible for fatigue crack growth.     

J-integral and crack driving force in elastic–plastic materials

This paper discusses the crack driving force in elastic–plastic materials, with particular emphasis on incremental plasticity. Using the configurational forces approach we identify a “plasticity influence term” that describes crack tip shielding or anti-shielding due to plastic deformation in the body. Standard constitutive models for finite strain as well as small strain incremental plasticity are used to obtain explicit expressions for the plasticity influence term in a two-dimensional setting. The total dissipation in the body is related to the near-tip and far-field J-integrals and the plasticity influence term. In the special case of deformation plasticity the plasticity influence term vanishes identically whereas for rigid plasticity and elastic-ideal plasticity the crack driving force vanishes. For steady state crack growth in incremental elastic–plastic materials, the plasticity influence term is equal to the negative of the plastic work per unit crack extension and the total dissipation in the body due to crack propagation and plastic deformation is determined by the far-field J-integral. For non-steady state crack growth, the plasticity influence term can be evaluated by post-processing after a conventional finite element stress analysis. Theory and computations are applied to a stationary crack in a C(T)-specimen to examine the effects of contained, uncontained and general yielding. A novel method is proposed for evaluating J-integrals under incremental plasticity conditions through the configurational body force. The incremental plasticity near-tip and far-field J-integrals are compared to conventional deformational plasticity and experimental J-integrals.     

Multi-scale plasticity modeling: Coupled discrete dislocation and continuum crystal plasticity

A hierarchical multi-scale model that couples a region of material described by discrete dislocation plasticity to a surrounding region described by conventional crystal plasticity is presented. The coupled model is aimed at capturing non-classical plasticity effects such as the long-range stresses associated with a density of geometrically necessary dislocations and source limited plasticity, while also accounting for plastic flow and the associated energy dissipation at much larger scales where such non-classical effects are absent. The key to the model is the treatment of the interface between the discrete and continuum regions, where continuity of tractions and displacements is maintained in an average sense and the flow of net Burgers vector is managed via “passing” of discrete dislocations. The formulation is used to analyze two plane strain problems: (i) tension of a block and (ii) crack growth under mode I loading with various sizes of the discrete dislocation plasticity region surrounding the crack tip. The computed crack growth resistance curves are nearly independent of the size of the discrete dislocation plasticity region for region sizes ranging from to . The multi-scale model can reduce the computational time for the mode I crack analysis by a factor of 14 with little or no loss of fidelity in the crack growth predictions.     

A new finite element method for strain gradient theories and applications to fracture analyses

A new compatible finite element method for strain gradient theories is presented. In the new finite element method, pure displacement derivatives are taken as the fundamental variables. The new numerical method is successfully used to analyze the simple strain gradient problems – the fundamental fracture problems. Through comparing the numerical solutions with the existed exact solutions, the effectiveness of the new finite element method is tested and confirmed. Additionally, an application of the Zienkiewicz–Taylor C1 finite element method to the strain gradient problem is discussed. By using the new finite element method, plane-strain mode I and mode II crack tip fields are calculated based on a constitutive law which is a simple generalization of the conventional J₂ deformation plasticity theory to include strain gradient effects. Three new constitutive parameters enter to characterize the scale over which strain gradient effects become important. During the analysis the general compressible version of Fleck–Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity is adopted. Crack tip solutions, the traction distributions along the plane ahead of the crack tip are calculated. The solutions display the considerable elevation of traction within the zone near the crack tip.     

The role of macroscopic hardening and individual length-scales on crack tip stress elevation from phenomenological strain gradient plasticity

This paper quantifies the effect of strain gradient plasticity (SGP) on crack tip stress elevation for a broad range of applied loading conditions and constitutive model parameters, including both macroscopic hardening parameters and individual material length-scales controlling gradient effects. Finite element simulations incorporating the Fleck-Hutchinson SGP theory are presented for an asymptotically sharp stationary crack. Results identify fundamental scaling relationships describing (i) the physical length-scales over which strain gradients are prominent, and (ii) the degree of stress elevation over conventional Hutchinson-Rice-Rosengren (HRR) fields. Results illustrate that the three length-scale theory predicts much larger SGP effects than the single length-scale theory. Critically, the first length-scale parameter dominates SGP stress elevation: this suggests that SGP effects in fracture can be predicted using the length-scales extracted from nanoindentation, which exhibits similar behavior. Transitional loading/material parameters are identified that establish regimes of SGP relevance: this provides the foundation for the rational application of SGP when developing new micromechanical models of crack tip damage mechanisms and associated subcritical crack propagation behavior in structural alloys.     

Analyses of steady quasistatic crack growth in plane strain tension in elastic-plastic materials with non-isotropic hardening

Steady state crack propagation problems of elastic-plastic materials in Mode I, plane strain under small scale yielding conditions were investigated with the aid of the finite element method. The elastic-perfectly plastic solution shows that elastic unloading wedges subtended by the crack tip in the plastic wake region do exist and that the stress state around the crack tip is similar to the modified Prandtl fan solution. To demonstrate the effects of a vertex on the yield surface, the small strain version of a phenomenological J₂, corner theory of plasticity (Christoffersen, J. and Hutchinson, J. W. J. Mech. Phys. Solids,27, 465 C 1979) with a power law stress strain relation was used to govern the strain hardening of the material. The results are compared with the conventional J₂ incremental plasticity solution. To take account of Bauschinger like effects caused by the stress history near the crack tip, a simple kinematic hardening rule with a bilinear stress strain relation was also studied. The results are again compared with the smooth yield surface isotropic hardening solution for the same stress strain curve. There appears to be more potential for steady state crack growth in the conventional J₂ incremental plasticity material than in the other two plasticity laws considered here if a crack opening displacement fracture criterion is used. However, a fracture criterion dependent on both stress and strain could lead to a contrary prediction.     

Effect of yield surface vertex on crack-tip fields in mode III

An asymptotic crack-tip analysis of stress and strain fields is carried out for an antiplane shear crack (Mode III) based on a corner theory of plasticity. Because of the nonproportional loading history experienced by a material element near the crack tip in stable crack growth, classical flow theory may predict an overly stiff response of the elastic plastic solid, as is the case in plastic buckling problems. The corner theory used here accounts for this anomalous behavior. The results are compared with those of a similar analysis based on the J₂ flow theory of plasticity.     

Role of elasticity in elastic–plastic fracture: Analytical bi-linear crack-tip fields and finite element analysis

A solution for Model-I plane strain crack tip fields in a bi-linear elastic–plastic material is presented. The elastic–plastic Poisson's ratio is introduced to characterize the influence of elastic deformation on the near tip constraint. Attention is focused on the distribution of elastic/plastic strain energy in the sensitive region of the forward sector ahead of a crack tip. The present study shows that the elastic strain energy can be higher than the plastic strain energy in this sensitive sector while large amount of the plastic strain energy develops outside this sector around the crack tip. The effect of elastic deformation in this sensitive region on the structure of crack-tip fields is considerable and the assumption in some important solutions for crack-tip fields reported in literature that the elastic deformation is small and can be ignored is therefore not physically reasonable. Besides, finite element analysis is carried out to validate the analytical solution and good agreement between them is found. It is seen that the present solution with T-stress can properly describe the crack-tip fields under various constraints for different specimens and an analytical relation is established between the critical value of J-integral, J_c, and T-stress for elastic–plastic fracture.     

Rate sensitivity of mixed mode interface toughness of dissimilar metallic materials: Studied at steady state

Crack propagation in metallic materials produces plastic dissipation when material in front for the crack tip enters the active plastic zone traveling with the tip, and later ends up being part of the residual plastic strain wake. Thus, the macroscopic work required to advance the crack is typically much larger than the work needed in the near tip fracture process. For rate sensitive materials, the amount of plastic dissipation typically depends on the rate at which the material is deformed. A dependency on the crack velocity should therefore be expected. The objective of this paper is to study the macroscopic toughness of crack advance along an interface joining two dissimilar rate dependent materials, characterized by an elastic-viscoplastic material model that approaches the response of a J₂-flow material in the rate independent limit. The emphasis here is on the rate sensitivity of the macroscopic fracture toughness under mixed Mode I/II loading. Moreover, special cases of joined similar rate dependent materials, as well as dissimilar materials where one substrate remains either elastic or approaches the rate independent limit is also included. The numerical analysis is carried out using the SSV model [Suo, Z., Shih, C., Varias, A., 1993. A theory for cleavage cracking in the presence of plastic flow. Acta Metall. Mater. 41, 1551–1557] embedded in a steady state finite element formulation, here assuming plane strain conditions and small-scale yielding. Results are presented for a wide range of material parameters, including noteworthy observations of a characteristic crack velocity at which the macroscopic toughness becomes independent of the material rate sensitivity. The potential of this phenomenon is elaborated on from a modeling point of view.     

Mode I and mode II crack tip asymptotic fields with strain gradient effects

The strain gradient effect becomes significant when the size of fracture process zone around a crack tip is comparable to the intrinsic material lengthl, typically of the order of microns. Using the new strain gradient deformation theory given by Chen and Wang, the asymptotic fields near a crack tip in an elastic-plastic material with strain gradient effects are investigated. It is established that the dominant strain field is irrotational. For mode I plane stress crack tip asymptotic field, the stress asymptotic field and the couple stress asymptotic field can not exist simultaneously. In the stress dominated asymptotic field, the angular distributions of stresses are consistent with the classical plane stress HRR field; In the couple stress dominated asymptotic field, the angular distributions of couple stresses are consistent with that obtained by Huang et al. For mode II plane stress and plane strain crack tip asymptotic fields, only the stress-dominated asymptotic fields exist. The couple stress asymptotic field is less singular than the stress asymptotic fields. The stress asymptotic fields are the same as mode II plane stress and plane strain HRR fields, respectively. The increase in stresses is not observed in strain gradient plasticity for mode I and mode II, because the present theory is based only on the rotational gradient of deformation and the crack tip asymptotic fields are irrotational and dominated by the stretching gradient. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19704100), National Natural Science Foundation of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJ951-1-20), CAS K.C. Wong Post-doctoral Research Award Fund and Post-doctoral Science Fund of China