Ductile Damage Model Based On Void Growth Analysis for Application to Ductile Crack Growth Simulation

The aim of this study is to propose damage model on the basis of the mechanism for ductile fracture related to void growth and to confirm the applicability of the proposed model to ductile crack growth simulation for steel. To figure out void growth behavior, elasto-plastic finite element analyses using unit cell model with an initial void were methodically performed. From the results of those analyses, it was evident that the relationships between normalized void volume fraction and normalized strain by each critical value corresponding to crack initiation were independent of stress-strain relationship of material and stress triaxiality state. Based on this characteristic associated with void growth, damage evolution law was derived. Then, using the damage evolution law, simple and phenomenological ductile damage model reflecting void growth behavior and ductility of material was proposed. To confirm the validation and application of proposed damage model, the damage model was implemented in finite element models and ductile crack growth resistance was simulated for cracked components were performed. Then, the simulated results were compared with experimental ones and it was found that the proposed damage model could accurately predict ductile crack growth resistance and was applicable to ductile crack growth simulation.

Influence of fluid-structure interaction effects on the ductile fracture of blast-loaded steel plates

This work presents ongoing research on the influence of fluidstructure interaction (FSI) effects on the ductile crack growth in perforated steel plates subjected to blast loading. The FSI effects were studied numerically by comparing the predictions from an uncoupled and a coupled FSI approach. Experimental results were used to evaluate the reliability of the numerical simulation. It was found that the numerical models were able to predict both crack initiation and crack growth in the plate, however, some distinct differences were also observed in the performance of the two approaches under consideration. The most important feature in predicting the observed fracture patterns was an accurate description of the blast loading during the FSI.

Investigation of Temperature Dependence of Weibull Parameters of the Beremin Model in Ductile-Brittle Transition Temperature Region

The Beremin model can handle both the plastic constraint effect and data scatter for brittle fracture. Many researchers have been investigating its applicability for more than 30 years and are still discussing the temperature dependence of Weibull parameters used in this model. The authors have already presented the experimental and analytical investigation results for low alloy steel using C(T) specimens in several temperature conditions. The analysis suggested that the Weibull parameters are constant for temperature. In this paper fracture toughness tests of carbon steel using SE(B) specimens at −120°C and −50°C were performed and the Weibull parameters were determined by the test results at −120°C. KJc of the 5% lower bound and the 95% upper bound confidence limit at −50°C were predicted using the Weibull parameters from −120°C. As a result, the predicted 5% lower bound confidence limit was close to the lowest experimental KJc value, whose fracture mode was nearly cleavage fracture. This means there is no temperature dependency of the Weibull parameters and the results are similar to those of low alloy steel. On the other hand the predicted 95% upper bound confidence limit had a large gap when compared with the experimental upper KJc value. One of the reasons of large gap was estimated that the parameter fitting of the GTN model was performed without consideration of the parameters relating to the second void effect and a precise stress-strain field after a large ductile crack growth with several millimeters was not obtained.

Ductile Crack Growth Resistance and Rotation Behavior of Miniature C(T) Specimen

A utilization of a miniature compact tension (Mini-C(T)) specimen is expected to enable effective use of limited remaining surveillance specimens for the structural integrity assessment of a Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV). For developing a direct fracture toughness evaluation method using Mini-C(T) specimen in the upper-shelf temperature range as well as ductile-brittle transition temperature range, this study is aimed to experimentally characterize the Mini-C(T) specimen’s size effect on ductile crack growth resistance and interpolate its mechanism. Mini-C(T) specimen and 0.5T-C(T) specimen were prepared from a Japanese RPV steel SQV2A, and the ductile crack growth tests were conducted on them at room temperature. As a result, the crack growth resistance of Mini-C(T) and 0.5T-C(T) specimens are comparable if the crack extension Δa is less than 0.5 mm. On the other hand, if Δa exceeds 0.5 mm, the crack growth resistance of Mini-C(T) specimen becomes lower than that of 0.5T-C(T) specimen. The measurements of stretch zone width and depth support the fact that the fracture toughness for ductile crack initiation of Mini-C(T) specimen is lower than that of 0.5T-C(T) specimen. From the rotational (crack mouth opening) deformation of Mini-C(T) specimen was measured by simultaneously measuring load-line and front face displacements. The distance between the crack tip and the rotation center of Mini-C(T) specimen is smaller than that of 0.5T-C(T) specimen during the test. Furthermore, The plastic zone in front of the crack tip reaches the rotation center up to the crack extension of Δa = 0.3 mm on Mini-C(T) specimen, indicating that the mechanism of the specimen size effect of Mini-C(T) specimen is likely a plastic constraint due to the influence of the rotation center locating near the crack tip. This suggests that the specimen size effect of Mini-C(T) specimen on ductile crack growth resistance is expected to be corrected by considering an effect of the plastic constraint.