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Numerical modeling of the ductile-brittle transition

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Abstract

Numerical studies of the ductile-brittle transition are described that are based on incorporating physically based models of the competing fracture mechanisms into the material's constitutive relation. An elastic-viscoplastic constitutive relation for a porous plastic solid is used to model ductile fracture by the nucleation and subsequent growth of voids to coalescence. Cleavage is modeled in terms of attaining a temperature and strain rate independent critical value of the maximum principal stress over a specified material region of the order of one or two grain sizes. Various analyses of ductile-brittle transitions carried out within this framework are discussed. The specimens considered include the Charpy V-notch test and cracked specimens under mode I or mode II loading conditions. The fracture mode transition emerges as a natural outcome of the initial-boundary value problem solution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Engineering, Brown University, RI, 02912, Providence, U.S.A.

    A. Needleman & V. Tvergaard

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  1. A. Needleman
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  2. V. Tvergaard
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Needleman, A., Tvergaard, V. Numerical modeling of the ductile-brittle transition. International Journal of Fracture 101, 73–97 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007520917244

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