ENT 487

FRACTURE MECHANISMS IN METALS

DR. HAFTIRMAN
LECTURE 11
Thu, 24 SEPTEMBER 2008

Void Growth and Coalescence

Void Growth and Coalescence

A

model originally developed by Gurson and

later modified by Tvergaard analyzes the
plastic flow in a pouros medium by assuming
that the material behaves as continuum.
Voids appear in the model indirectly through
their influence on the global flow behavior.
The effect of the voids is averaged through the
material, which is assumed to be continuous
and homogenous.

Void Growth and Coalescence

The limit-local model for void
instability. Failure is assumed to
occur when the next section
stress between voids reaches a
critical value.
Figure illustrates a twodimensional case, where
cylindrical voids are growing in a
material subject to plane strain
loading. If the in-plane
dimensions of the voids are 2a
and 2b and the spacing between
voids is 2d, the row of voids
illustrates is Figure is stable if
where 1 is the maximum priciple
stress.
The void interactions leading to
ductile failure are far too complex
to a captured by a simple area
reduction model.

Ductile Crack Growth

a)
b)
c)

Mechanism for
ductile crack growth
Initial state
Void growth at the
crack tip
Coalescence of
voids with the crack
tip.

Ductile Crack Growth

Figure

schematically illustrates microvoid

initiation, growth and coalescence at the tip of
a preexisting crack.
As the cracked structure ia loaded, local
strains and stresses at the crack tip become
sufficient to nucleated voids.
These voids grow as the crack blunts, they
eventually link the main crack.
As this process continues, the crack grows.

Ductile Crack Growth

Ductile Crack Growth

Figure

is a plot of stress and strain near

crack tip of a blunted crack.
The strain exhibits a singularity near the
crack tip, but the stress reaches a peak
at approximately two times the crack-tipopening displacement (CTOD).

Ductile growth of an edge crack. The shear lips are produced by the
same mechanism as the cup and cone in uniaxial tension

Ductile crack growth in a 45 zigzag pattern.

Ductile Crack Growth

The high-triaxiality crack growth at the center of a plate

appears to be relatively flat, but closer examination reveals a
more complex structure.
For a crack subject to plane strain Mode I loading, the
maximum plastic strain occurs at 45 from the crack palne,
illustrates in Figure a.
On the local level, this angle is the prefered path for void
coalescence, but global constarins required that the crack
propagation remain in its original plane.
One way to reconcile these competing requirements is for
the crack to growth in a zigzag pattern (Figure b), such that
the crack appears flat on a global scale, but oriented 45,
from the crack propagation direction when viewed at higher
magnification.
The zigzag pattern is often observed in ductile materials.

Ductile Crack Growth

Figure

shows a
metallographic
cross-section of a
growing crack that
exhibits the zigzag
pattern behavior

Cleavage
SEM

fractographs of
cleavage in an A 508

Mechanisms of Cleavage Initiation

Formation

of river
patterns as a result
of a cleavage crack
crossing a twist
boundary between
grain.

Mechanisms of Cleavage Initiation

River

patterns in an
A 508 Class 3 steel.
Note the tearing
(light areas) between
paralel cleavage
planes.

Mechanisms of Cleavage Initiation

a.
b.

SEM fractographs
of cleavage
initiation in an A
508.
Initiation at a grain
boundary carbide.
Initiation at an
inclusion near the
center of a grain.

Mechanisms of Cleavage Initiation

a.
b.
c.

Examples of
unsuccessful cleavage
events.
Arrest at particle/matrix
interface.
Arrest at a grain
boundary
Arrest due to a steep
stress gradient.

Arrested cleavage cracks a head of a macroscopic

crack in a spherodized 1008 steel.

Intergranular fracture
In

most cases metals do not fail along grain

boundaries.
Ductile metals usually fail by the coalescence
of voids formed at inclusions and the secondphase particles, while brittle metals typically
fail by transgranular cleavage.
Under special circumstances, however, cracks
can form and propagate along grain
boundaries.

Intergranular fracture

1.
2.
3.
4.

There is no single mechanism for

intergranular fracture. Rather, there are a
variety of situations that can lead to cracking
on grain boundaries, including:
Precipitation of brittle phase on the grain
boundary.
Environmental assisted cracking.
Intergranular corrosion.
Grain boundary cavitation and cracking at
high temperatures.

Intergranular fracture

Intergranular fracture