Open Access

ABSTRACT

Large deformation FEM analysis of ductile fracture

Sanjeev Saxena¹, N. Ramakrishnan¹, B.K. Dutta², P. Rama Rao³

1 Regional Research Laboratory, Habibganj Naka, Hoshangabad Road, Bhopal, 462 026-India.
2 Reactor safety division, Hall-7, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai 400085, India
3 International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Balapur P.O., Hyderabad, 500 005, India.

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences 2007, 1(4), 147-152. https://doi.org/10.3970/icces.2007.001.147

Abstract

Several methods are in vogue to understand the process of crack initiation and propagation in ductile materials. In an attempt to achieve a unified understanding of these methods, a large deformation finite element analysis has been carried out. An attempt has been made to understand ductile fracture by numerically determining the ductile fracture toughness by three different methods viz. 1) Load-displacement method 2) Path-integral method 3) Stretch zone width method (SZW). In addition, an attempt has to be made to explore the possibility of using `characteristic distance'(lc) approach for establishing fracture toughness. The present study attempts at achieving an insight into defining the procedure for numerical determination of SZW. This method of determination also explains the mechanism behind the creation of featureless zone, defined as SZW, which was missing in its earlier method of determination by 45 degree lines. The investigation essentially comprises of number of FEM simulation to study & correlate crack tip blunting with experimental fracture toughness. It is concluded that large deformation FEM analysis can reasonably represent the process of fracture in the crack tip area and can fairly accurately predict the material's toughness, SZW and its critical value using tensile test data.

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