Ductile fracture at intermediate stress triaxialities : experimental investigations and micro-mechanical modeling

• Main Author: Dunand, Matthieu
• Other Authors: Dirk Mohr and Tomasz Wierzbicki.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014
• Subjects: Mechanical Engineering.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85696

Thesis: Sc. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2013. === This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. === Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references (pages [239]-256). === Accurate predictions of the onset of ductile fracture play an increasingly important role in the design of lightweight sheet metal structures. With the development of virtual prototyping practices, most transportation vehicles are now computer-engineered in great detail before launching their mass production, thereby requiring reliable models for plasticity and fracture. This thesis reports on a comprehensive investigation into the effect of stress state on the onset of ductile fracture of an Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS), covering development of new experimental procedures, material characterization and phenomenological as well as micro-mechanical modeling of the onset of fracture. Based on an extensive multi-axial experimental program, the anisotropic plasticity of the present material is described by a non-associated quadratic anisotropic model. Comparison of model predictions to experimental results reveals that the proposed model provides better predictions than associated isotropic or anisotropic quadratic models. Moreover, a structural validation is presented that demonstrates the higher prediction accuracy of the non-associated plasticity model. A hybrid experimental-numerical approach is proposed to investigate the dependence of the onset of fracture to stress state. The experimental program covers the complete range of positive stress triaxialities, from pure shear to equibiaxial tension. It includes different full thickness specimens as well as multi-axial fracture experiments where combinations of tension and shear loadings are applied to a newly developed butterfly-shaped specimen. Loading paths to fracture are determined for each experiment in terms of stress triaxiality, Lode angle parameter and equivalent plastic strain and show a non-monotonic and strong dependence of ductility to stress state. The extensive fracture characterization is used to evaluate the predictive capabilities of two phenomenological and physics-inspired fracture models (the Modified Mohr-Coulomb and a shear-modified Gurson model) that take the effect of the first and third stress tensor invariants into account in predicting the onset of fracture. Finally, a micro-mechanical model relating the onset of fracture to plastic localization into a narrow band at the micro-scale is developed. The effect of stress state on localization is investigated numerically by means of a 3D void-containing unit cell submitted to well-controlled and proportional loadings in the macroscopic stress state. Based on simulation results, an analytical localization criterion is proposed which defines an open convex envelope in terms of the shear and normal stresses acting on the plane of localization and correlates well with experimental results. === by Matthieu Dunand. === Sc. D.