On ductile fracture initiation toughness: Effects of void volume fraction,void shape and void distribution

This paper studies the effects of the initial relative void spacing, void pattern, void shape and void volume fraction on ductile fracture toughness using three-dimensional, small scale yielding models, where voids are assumed to pre-exist in the material and are explicitly modeled using refined finite elements. Results of this study can be used to explain the observed fracture toughness anisotropy in industrial alloys. Our analyses suggest that simplified models containing a single row of voids ahead of the crack tip is sufficient when the initial void volume fraction remains small. When the initial void volume fraction becomes large, these simplified models can predict the fracture initiation toughness (J_Ic) with adequate accuracy but cannot predict the correct J–R curve because they over-predict the interaction among growing voids on the plane of crack propagation. Consequently, finite element models containing multiple rows of voids should be used when the material has large initial void volume fraction.     

Effects of pressure-sensitivity and plastic dilatancy on void growth and interaction

Hydrostatic stress can affect the non-elastic deformation and flow stress of polymeric materials and certain metallic alloys. This sensitivity to hydrostatic stress can also influence the fracture toughness of ductile materials, which fail by void growth and coalescence. These materials typically contain a non-uniform distribution of voids of varying size-scales and void shapes. In this work, the effects of void shape and microvoid interaction in pressure-sensitive materials are examined via a two-prong approach: (i) an axisymmetric unit-cell containing a single ellipsoidal void and (ii) a plane-strain unit-cell consisting of a single large void and a population of discrete microvoids. The representative material volume in both cases is subjected to physical stress states similar to highly stressed regions ahead of a crack. Results show that oblate voids and microvoid cavitation can severely reduce the critical stress of the material. These effects can be compounded under high levels of pressure-sensitivity. In some cases, the critical stress responsible for rapid void growth is reduced to levels comparable to the yield strength of the material. The contribution of void shape and pressure-sensitivity to the thermal- and moisture-induced voiding phenomenon in IC packages is also discussed.     

Modeling of crack growth in ductile solids: a three-dimensional analysis

A population of several spherical voids is included in a three-dimensional, small scale yielding model. Two distinct void growth mechanisms, put forth by [Int. J. Solids Struct. 39 (2002) 3581] for the case of a two-dimensional model containing cylindrical voids, are well contained in the model developed in this study for spherical voids. A material failure criterion, based on the occurrence of void coalescence in the unit cell model, is established. The critical ligament reduction ratio, which varies with stress triaxiality and initial porosity, is used to determine ligament failure between the crack tip and the nearest void. A comparison of crack initiation toughness of the model containing cylindrical voids with the model containing spherical voids reveals that the material having a sizeable fraction of spherical voids is tougher than the material having cylindrical voids. The proposed material failure determination method is then used to establish the fracture resistance curve (J–R curve) of the material. For a ductile material containing a small volume fraction of microscopic voids initially, the void by void growth mechanism prevails, which results in a J–R curve having steep slope. On the other hand, for a ductile material containing a large volume fraction of initial voids, the multiple voids interaction mechanism prevails, which results in a flat J–R curve. Next, the effect of T-stress on fracture resistance is examined. Finally, nucleation and growth of secondary microvoids and their effects on void coalescence are briefly discussed.     

伴随微孔洞生长的裂纹弹塑性定常扩展

裂纹在韧性材料中扩展时,将们随着微孔洞的萌生和生长,孔洞的萌生和深化将直接影响着材料的总体断裂韧性和强度,以往的研究主要集中在将裂纹的扩展刻划为微孔洞的萌生、生长和汇合这样一个过程。从传统的断裂过程区模型出发研究微孔洞的萌生和生长对材料总体断裂韧性的影响,通过采用Ｇｕｒｓｏｎ模型,建立塑性增量本构关系,然后针对定常扩展情况直接进行分析,孔洞对材料断裂韧性的影响由本构关系刻划,而在孔洞汇合模型中,上     

Analysis of a model for void growth and coalescence ahead of a moving crack tip

One mechanism for the slow, steady motion of a crack tip in plane strain is void growth and coalescence. A model of this process is formulated by isolating a geometrical cell containing a single void and extending the cell in uniaxial strain. A rigid-plastic material is assumed and the velocity field is analysed by means of a finite element procedure. From the results of the analysis, the dissipation of energy in the creation of crack surfaces is estimated as a function of the original void-size and the volume fraction of voids. Further, the shallow shape of dimples found experimentally is verified by the results of the analysis. A check on the accuracy is obtained by application of the numerical method to cases where analytical solutions are known.     

Finite element analysis of void growth near a blunting crack tip

Large deformation finite element analysis has been used to study the near crack tip growth of long cylindrical holes aligned parallel to the plane of a mode I plane strain crack. The near crack tip stress and deformation fields are analyzed. The results show that the holes are pulled towards the crack tip and change their shape to approximately elliptical with the major axis radial to the crack. They also grow faster directly ahead of the crack than at an angle to the crack plane. Several crack-hole coalescence criteria are discussed and estimates for the conditions for fracture initiation are given and compared with experimental results. The range of estimates now available from finite element calculations coincides quite well with the range of experimental data for materials containing inclusions which are only loosely bonded to the matrix.     

A void nucleation and growth based damage framework to model failure initiation ahead of a sharp notch in irradiated bcc materials

A continuum damage framework is developed and coupled with an existing crystal plasticity framework, to model failure initiation in irradiated bcc polycrystalline materials at intermediate temperatures. Constitutive equations for vacancy generation due to inelastic deformation, void nucleation due to vacancy condensation, and diffusion-assisted void growth are developed. The framework is used to simulate failure initiation at dislocation channel interfaces and grain boundaries ahead of a sharp notch. Evolution of the microstructure is considered in terms of the evolution of inelastic deformation, vacancy concentration, and void number density and radius. Evolution of the damage, i.e., volume fraction of the voids, is studied as a function of applied deformation. Effects of strain rate and temperature on failure initiation are also studied. The framework is used to compute the fracture toughness of irradiated specimens for various loading histories and notch geometries. Crack growth resistance of the irradiated specimens are computed and compared to that of virgin specimens. Results are compared to available experimental data.     

Cylindrical void in a rigid-ideally plastic single crystal. Part I: Anisotropic slip line theory solution for face-centered cubic crystals

The fracture toughness of ductile materials depends upon the ability of the material to resist the growth of microscale voids near a crack tip. Mechanics analyses of the elastic–plastic deformation state around such voids typically assume the surrounding material to be isotropic. However, the voids exist predominantly within a single grain of a polycrystalline material, so it is necessary to account for the anisotropic nature of the surrounding material. In the present work, anisotropic slip line theory is employed to derive the stress and deformation state around a cylindrical void in a single crystal oriented so that plane strain conditions are admitted from three effective in-plane slip systems. The deformation state takes the form of angular sectors around the circumference of the void. Only one of the three effective slip systems is active within each sector. Each slip sector is further subdivided into smaller sectors inside of which it is possible to derive the stress state. Thus the theory predicts a highly heterogeneous stress and deformation state. In addition, it is shown that the in-plane pressure necessary to activate plastic deformation around a cylindrical void in an anisotropic material is significantly higher than that necessary for an isotropic material. Experiments and single crystal plasticity finite element simulations of cylindrical voids in single crystals, both of which exhibit a close correspondence to the analytical theory, are discussed in a companion paper.     

The dynamic growth of a void in a plastic material and an application to fracture

The problem of the dynamic growth of a spherical void in applied stress and strain-rate fields is solved approximately using a variational method. The solution is applied to a model of fracture by void growth from brittle or incoherent inclusions. It is shown that the speed of fracture is limited by inertia near the crack tip. Some numerical results are obtained from data for high strength steels.     

Vapor pressure and void size effects on failure of a constrained ductile film

To achieve certain properties, semiconductor adhesives and molding compounds are made by blending filler particles with polymer matrix. Moisture collects at filler particle/polymer matrix interfaces and within voids of the composite. At reflow temperatures, the moisture vaporizes. The rapidly expanding vapor creates high internal pressure on pre-existing voids and particle/matrix interfaces. The simultaneous action of thermal stresses and internal vapor pressure drives both pre-existing and newly nucleated voids to grow and coalesce causing material failure. Particularly susceptible are polymeric films and adhesives joining elastic substrates, e.g. Ag filled epoxy. Several competing failure mechanisms are studied including: near-tip void growth and coalescence with the crack; extensive void growth and formation of an extended damaged zone emanating from the crack; and rapid void growth at highly stressed sites at large distances ahead of the crack, leading to multiple damaged zones. This competition is driven by the interplay between stress elevation induced by constrained plastic flow and stress relaxation due to vapor pressure assisted void growth.A model problem of a ductile film bonded between two elastic substrates, with a centerline crack, is studied. The computational study employs a Gurson porous material model incorporating vapor pressure effects. The formation of multiple damaged zones is favored when the film contains small voids or dilute second-phase particle distribution. The presence of large voids or high vapor pressure favor the growth of a self-similar damage zone emanating from the crack. High vapor pressure accelerates film cracking that can cause device failures.     

空孔与运动裂纹相互作用的动焦散线实验研究

为研究预制裂纹不同偏移距离时运动裂纹与空孔的相互作用规律,采用动态焦散线实验系统,将预制裂纹的偏移距离设定为唯一变量,对含空孔的有机玻璃(PMMA)试件进行冲击三点弯实验。研究表明,存在两个临界距离:（6 mm (2 R )、9 mm (3 R )）,在该偏移距离下,裂纹扩展轨迹、动态断裂特性发生显著改变:(1) 预制裂纹偏移距离不大于3 mm时,裂纹贯穿空孔,发生二次起裂,且二次起裂的速度与应力强度因子显著大于一次起裂,无偏移时裂纹轨迹的分形维数为最小值;(2) 偏移距离增大至6 mm时,裂纹不再贯穿空孔,空孔对裂纹先吸引后排斥,裂纹速度与应力强度因子先减小后增大,裂纹轨迹的分形维数达到最大值;(3) 偏移距离大于6 mm时,空孔对裂纹的吸引作用逐渐减小,大于9 mm后,空孔对裂纹的吸引不再显著,裂纹起裂后即向落锤加载方向扩展直至贯穿试件。     

A finite element study of the near crack tip deformation of a ductile material under mixed mode loading

In ductile fracture, voids near a crack tip play an important role. From this point of view, a large deformation finite element analysis has been made to study the deformation, stress and strain, and void ratio near the crack tip under mixed mode plane strain loading conditions, employing Gurson's constitutive equation which has taken into account the effects of void nucleation and growth. The results show that: (i) one corner of the crack tip sharpens while the other corner blunts, (ii) the stress and strain distributions except for the near crack tip region, can be superimposed by normalizing distance from the crack tip by a crack tip deformation length, i.e., a steady-state solution under a mixed mode condition has been obtained, (iii) the field near a crack tip can be divided into four characteristic fields (K field, HRR field, blunted crack tip field, and damaged region), and (iv) the strain and void volume fraction become concentrated in the sharpened part of a crack tip with increasing Mode II component.     

An analysis of ductile rupture modes at a crack tip

An elastic-Viscoplastic model of a ductile, porous solid is used to study the influence of the nucleation and growth of micro-voids in the material near the tip of a crack. Conditions of small scale yielding are assumed, and the numerical analyses of the stress and strain fields are based on finite strain theory, so that crack tip blunting is fully accounted for. An array of large inclusions or inclusion colonies, with a relatively low strength, results in large voids near the crack tip at a rather early stage, whereas small second phase particles in the matrix material between the inclusions require large strains before cavities nucleate. Various distributions of the large inclusions, and various critical strains for nucleation of the small scale voids between the inclusions, are considered. Localization of plastic flow plays an important role in determining the failure path between the crack tip and the nearest larger void, and the path is strongly sensitive to the distribution of the large inclusions. Values of the J-integral and the crack opening displacement at fracture initiation are estimated, together with values of the tearing modulus during crack growth, and these values are related to experimental results.     

Modeling of ductile fracture: Significance of void coalescence

In this paper void coalescence is regarded as the result of localization of plastic flow between enlarged voids. We obtain the failure criterion for a representative material volume (RMV) in terms of the macroscopic equivalent strain (E_c) as a function of the stress triaxiality parameter (T) and the Lode angle (θ) by conducting systematic finite element analyses of the void-containing RMV subjected to different macroscopic stress states. A series of parameter studies are conducted to examine the effects of the initial shape and volume fraction of the primary void and nucleation, growth, and coalescence of secondary voids on the predicted failure surface E_c(T, θ). As an application, a numerical approach is proposed to predict ductile crack growth in thin panels of a 2024-T3 aluminum alloy, where a porous plasticity model is used to describe the void growth process and the expression for E_c is calibrated using experimental data. The calibrated computational model is applied to predict crack extension in fracture specimens having various initial crack configurations and the numerical predictions agree very well with experimental measurements.     

Rate effects on toughness in elastic nonlinear viscous solids

A micromechanics-based constitutive relation for void growth in a nonlinear viscous solid is proposed to study rate effects on fracture toughness. This relation is incorporated into a microporous strip of cell elements embedded in a computational model for crack growth. The microporous strip is surrounded by an elastic nonlinear viscous solid referred to as the background material. Under steady-state crack growth, two dissipative processes contribute to the macroscopic fracture toughness—the work of separation in the strip of cell elements and energy dissipation by inelastic deformation in the background material. As the crack velocity increases, voids grow in the strain-rate strengthened microporous strip, thereby elevating the work of separation. In contrast, the energy dissipation in the background material decreases as the crack velocity increases. In the regime where the work of separation dominates energy dissipation, toughness increases with crack velocity. In the regime where energy dissipation is dominant, toughness decreases with crack velocity. Computational simulations show that the two regimes can exist in certain range of crack velocities for a given material. The existence of these regimes is greatly influenced by the rate dependence of the void growth mechanism (and the initial void size) as well as that of the bulk material. This competition between the two dissipative processes produces a U-shaped toughness-crack velocity curve. Our computational simulations predict trends that agree with fracture toughness vs. crack velocity data reported in several experimental studies for glassy polymers and rubber-modified epoxies.     

Cohesive-zone laws for void growth — I. Experimental field projection of crack-tip crazing in glassy polymers

A hybrid framework for inverse analysis of crack-tip cohesive-zone model is developed in this two-part paper to measure cohesive-zone laws of void growth in polymers by combining analytical, experimental, and numerical approaches. This paper focuses on experimental measurements of the cohesive-zone laws for two nonlinear fracture processes in glassy polymers, namely multiple crazing in crack-growth toughening of rubber-toughened high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) and crazing of steady-state crack growth in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) under a methanol environment. To this end, electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) is first applied to measure the crack-tip displacement fields surrounding the fracture process zones in these polymers. These fields are subsequently equilibrium smoothed and used in the extraction of the cohesive-zone laws via an analytical solution method of the inverse problem, the planar field projection method (P-FPM) [Hong, S., Kim, K.-S., 2003. Extraction of cohesive-zone laws from elastic far-fields of a cohesive crack tip: a field projection method. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 51, 1267-1286]. Results show that the proposed framework of the P-FPM could provide a systematic way of finding the shape of the cohesive-zone laws governed by the different micro-mechanisms in the fracture processes. In HIPS, inter-particle multiple crazing develops and the craze zone broadens ahead of a crack-tip under mechanical loading. The corresponding cohesive-zone relationship of the multiple-craze zone is found to be highly convex, which indicates effectiveness of rubber particle toughening. It is also observed that the effective peak traction, 7 MPa, in the crack-tip cohesive zone of HIPS (30% rubber content) is lower than the uniaxial yield stress of 9 MPa, presumably due to stress multi-axiality effects. In contrast, in PMMA, methanol localizes the crack-tip craze, weakening the craze traction for craze-void initiation to about 9 MPa and the fibril pull-out stress to less than 6 MPa. This reduction in cohesive traction, coupled with a strongly concave traction-separation cohesive-zone relationship, signifies environmental embrittlement of PMMA. These experimentally determined cohesive-zone laws are compared with detailed numerical analyses of effective microscale-void growth ahead of a crack tip in Part II.     

Three dimensional microstructural effects on plane strain ductile crack growth

Ductile crack growth under mode I, plane strain, small scale yielding conditions is analyzed. Overall plane strain loading is prescribed, but a full 3D analysis is carried out to model three dimensional microstructural effects. An elastic-viscoplastic constitutive relation for a porous plastic solid is used to model the material. Two populations of second-phase particles are represented, large inclusions with low strength, which result in large voids near the crack tip at an early stage, and small second-phase particles, which require large strains before cavities nucleate. The larger inclusions are represented discretely and the effects of different three dimensional distributions on the crack path and on the overall crack growth rate are analyzed. For comparison purposes, a two dimensional distribution of cylindrical inclusions is analyzed. Crack growth occurs off the initial crack plane in all 3D computations, whereas straight ahead crack growth occurs with the two dimensional cylindrical inclusions. As a consequence, the three dimensional distributions of spherical inclusions exhibit an increased crack growth resistance as compared to the two dimensional distribution of cylindrical inclusions.     

韧性断裂的微观模型及其在约束断裂中的应用

详细分析了不同形状断裂试件及小范围屈服模型裂纹端部的损伤演化，提出了韧性断裂的宏观起裂相当于裂尖前方一特征位置处的损伤达到一临界值。利用此模型获得了与实验相一致的宏观断裂韧性及与约束无关的理论断裂韧性。     

Effects of lattice incompatibility-induced hardening on the fracture behavior of ductile single crystals

Plane-strain mode-I cracks in a ductile single crystal are studied under conditions of small scale yielding. The specific case of a (0 1 0) crack growing in the [1 0 1] direction for an FCC crystal is considered. Crack initiation and its subsequent growth are computed by specifying a traction-separation relation in the crack plane ahead of the crack tip. The crystal is characterized by a hardening model that incorporates physically motivated gradient effects. Significant traction elevation ahead of the crack tip is obtained by incorporating such effects, allowing a better basis for the explanation of experimentally observed cleavage in the presence of substantial plastic flow in slowly deforming ductile materials. Resistance curves based on parameters characterizing the fracture process and the continuum properties of the crystal are computed. Simulation results indicate that the length-scale of the lattice incompatibility-dominated region has to be comparable or larger than the length of the fracture process zone for gradient effects to have a significant effect on fracture resistance. Both the work of separation and the peak separation stress also play important roles in determining the fracture resistance of the crystal.     

复合型韧性断裂实验和控制参数

通过对不同韧性材料在各种平面复合载荷形式下裂纹启裂阶段裂端变形、启裂位置和扩展方向的系统的宏微观实验验证及计算分析,考察了韧性断裂参数空穴扩张比的分布特征和裂纹启裂及扩展方向的关系．得到：对于不同韧性的材料,在裂端的钝化变形区域,空穴扩张比的极大值区对应干裂纹的启裂位置,裂纹启裂时钝化裂端前缘空穴扩张比的临界值不敏感于复合比的变化．而对于裂纹启裂后的扩展方向,则需根据具体材料在相应的特定区域中比较空穴扩张比参数极大值的分布特征,需经进一步的分析,从而确定裂纹的扩展方向．实验及计算结果表明,尽管复合型断裂时裂纹启裂及扩展的机理极其复杂,用于韧性材料复合型断裂的空穴扩张比参数仍能很好地预测裂端的启裂及扩展方向,可作为复合型韧性断裂过程的控制参数．