A micro‐mechanical damage model based on gradient plasticity: algorithms and applications

As soon as material failure dominates a deformation process, the material increasingly displays strain softening and the finite element computation is significantly affected by the element size. Without remedying this effect in the constitutive model one cannot hope for a reliable prediction of the ductile material failure process. In the present paper, a micro‐mechanical damage model coupled to gradient‐dependent plasticity theory is presented and its finite element algorithm is discussed. By incorporating the Laplacian of plastic strain into the damage constitutive relationship, the known mesh‐dependence is overcome and computational results are uniquely correlated with the given material parameters. The implicit C¹ shape function is used and can be transformed to arbitrary quadrilateral elements. The introduced intrinsic material length parameter is able to predict size effects in material failure. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling of failure mode of laser welds in lap-shear specimens of HSLA steel sheets

Failure mode of laser welds in lap-shear specimens of high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel sheets is investigated in this paper. The experiments for laser welds in lap-shear specimens under quasi-static loading conditions are briefly reviewed first. The experimental results showed that the laser welds failed in a ductile necking/shear failure mode and the ductile failure was initiated at a distance away from the crack tip near the boundary of the base metal and heat affected zone. In order to understand the failure mode of these welds, finite element analyses under plane strain conditions were conducted to identify the effects of the different plastic behaviors of the base metal, heat affected zone, and weld zone as well as the weld geometry on the ductile failure. The results of the reference finite element analysis based on the homogenous material model show that the failure mode is most likely to be a middle surface shear failure mode in the weld. The results of the finite element analysis based on the multi-zone non-homogeneous material models show that the higher effective stress–plastic strain curves of the weld and heat affected zones and the geometry of the weld protrusion result in the necking/shear failure mode in the load carrying sheet. The results of another finite element analysis based on the non-homogeneous material model and the Gurson yield function for porous materials indicate that the consideration of void nucleation and growth is necessary to identify the ductile failure initiation site that matches well with the experimental observations. Finally, the results of this investigation indicate that the failure mode of the welds should be examined carefully and the necking/shear failure mode needs to be considered for development of failure or separation criteria for welds under more complex loading conditions.     

Microstructural effects on ductile fracture in heterogeneous materials. Part II: Applications to cast aluminum microstructures

This is the second of a two part paper aimed at investigating the effects of microstructural morphology, material properties and loading on rate-dependent ductile fracture of heterogeneous materials. The locally enhanced Voronoi cell finite element method (LE-VCFEM) is used for micromechanical analyses of deformation and failure in complex microstructural volume elements. The first part of this paper sequence evaluates the sensitivity of strain to failure of computer simulated microstructures to loading rate, microstructural morphology and material properties. In this second part, LE-VCFEM simulations of actual microstructures of a cast aluminum alloy micrograph are used to validate a strain to failure model developed in the first part. A method for identification of critical regions within a heterogeneous microstructure is also developed and validated using in-situ observations of a two-point bending test. The influence of applied strain rates on ductile fracture of micrograph-based complex microstructures is also investigated.     

Dynamic ductile crack growth and transition to cleavage – a cell model approach

The fracture behavior of ferritic steel in the transition regime is controlled by the competition between ductile tearing and cleavage. Many test specimens that failed by catastrophic cleavage showed significant amounts of ductile tearing prior to cleavage fracture. The transition from ductile tearing to cleavage has been attributed to the increase in constraint and sampling volume associated with ductile crack growth. This work examines the role of dynamic ductile crack growth on the fracture mode transition by way of a cell model of the material. The cell model incorporates the effects of stress triaxiality and strain rate on material failure characteristics of hole growth and coalescence. Loading rate and microstructure effects on the stress fields that evolve with rapid (ductile) crack growth are systematically studied. The stress fields are employed to compute the Weibull stress which provides probability estimates for the susceptibility to cleavage fracture. A center-cracked panel subjected to remote tension is the model problem under study. The computational model uses an elastic-viscoplastic constitutive relation which incorporates enhanced strain rate hardening at high strain rates. Adiabatic heating due to plastic dissipation and the resulting thermal softening are also accounted for. Under dynamically high loading rate, our model shows the crack speed achieves its peak value soon after crack initiation and quickly falls off to slower speeds with further crack growth. Remarkably, the Weibull stress follows a similar pattern which suggests that the transition to the cleavage fracture is most likely to occur, if at all, at the peak speed of ductile crack growth. Key words: Dynamic fracture, ductile tearing, crack growth, transition regime, cleavage fracture, cell model, finite element.     

Numerical modeling of strain localization in engineering ductile materials combining cohesive models and X-FEM

The present work aims at numerically predicting the current residual strength of large engineering structures made of ductile metals against accidental failure. With this aim in view, the challenge consists in reproducing within a unified finite element-based methodology the successive steps of micro-voiding-induced damage, strain localization and crack propagation, if any. A key ingredient for a predictive ductile fracture model is the proper numerical treatment of the critical transition phase of damage-induced strain localization inside a narrow band. For this purpose, the strong discontinuity cohesive model and the eXtended Finite Element Method are combined. A propagation algorithm is proposed and studied in the context of ductile materials. Physics-motivated criteria to pass from the phase of more or less diffuse damage to strain localization and from strain localization to crack propoagation are proposed. Finally, a 2D numerical example is shown to study the performance of the failure analysis model when implemented into an engineering finite element computation code, namely Abaqus.     

Non—Local Analysis of Forming Limits of Ductile Material Considering Void Growth

The current study performed a finite element analysis of the strain localization behavior of a voided ductile material using a non-local plasticity formulation in which the yield strength depends on both an equivalent plastic strain measurement (hardening parameter) and Laplacian equivalent. The introduction of gradient terms to the yield function was found to play an important role in simulating the strain localization behavior of the voided ductile material. The effect of the mesh size and characteristic length on the strain localization were also investigated. An FEM simulation based on the proposed non-local plasticity revealed that the load-strain curves of the voided ductile material subjected to plane strain tension converged to one curve, regardless of the mesh size. In addition, the results using non-local plasticity also exhibited that the dependence of the deformation behavior of the material on the mesh size was much less sensitive than that with classical local plasticity and could be successfully eliminated through the introduction of a large value for the characteristic length.     

Computational algorithms and applications of element-free Galerkin methods for nonlocal damage models

In using complex material models, especially the strain-gradient-dependent damage models, the convergence of the finite element computation increasingly becomes a problem. Due to large strains in damaging elements the computation may often result in non-convergence. For the higher-order gradient plasticity the special element formulation would often be necessary, which causes additional difficulties in implementation and computations. In recent years, meshless methods have been developed as an alternative to the finite element method (FEM) and can overcome some known shortcomings of FEM. In the present paper an algorithm of element-free Galerkin (EFG) methods for strain-gradient based nonlocal damage models has been developed and used to simulate ductile material damage. The method provides a reliable and robust results for material failure with large damage zones. The strain gradient-dependent terms can be evaluated from the direct differentiation. The investigation confirms that the nonlocal damage model with element-free Galerkin method is suitable for computing the damage problems and predicting the size effects. With the help of the meshless method, material failure in specimens as well as the size effects are predicted accurately.     

A stochastic plasticity approach to strength modeling of strand-based wood composites

A 3 dimensional stochastic finite element technique is presented herein for simulating the nonlinear behaviour of strand-based wood composites with strands of varying grain-angle. The approach is based on the constitutive properties of the individual strands to study the effects of varying strand characteristics (such as species or geometry) on the performance of the member. The constitutive properties of the strands are found empirically and are subsequently used in a 3 dimensional finite element program. The program is formulated in a probabilistic manner using random variable material properties as input. The constitutive model incorporates classic plasticity theory whereby anisotropic hardening and eventual failure of the material is established by the Tsai–Wu criterion with an associated flow rule. Failure is marked by an upper bound surface whereupon either perfect plasticity (i.e. ductile behavior) or an abrupt loss of strength and stiffness (i.e. brittle behavior) ensues. The ability of this technique to reproduce experimental findings for the stress–strain curves of angle-ply laminates in tension, compression as well as 3 point bending is validated.     

Finite element analysis of combined forming processes by means of rate dependent ductile damage modelling

Sheet metal forming is an inherent part of todays production industry. A major goal is to increase the forming limits of classical deep-drawing processes. One possibility to achieve that is to combine the conventional quasi-static (QS) forming process with electromagnetic high-speed (HS) post-forming. This work focuses on the finite element analysis of such combined forming processes to demonstrate the improvement which can be achieved. For this purpose, a cooperation of different institutions representing different work fields has been established. The material characterization is based on flow curves and forming limit curves for low and high strain rates obtained by novel testing devices. Further experimental investigations have been performed on the process chain of a cross shaped cup, referring to both purely quasi-static and quasi-static combined with electromagnetic forming. While efficient mathematical optimization algorithms support the new viscoplastic ductile damage modelling to find the optimum parameters based on the results of experimental material characterization, the full process chain is studied by means of an electro-magneto-mechanical finite element analysis. The constitutive equations of the material model are integrated in an explicit manner and implemented as a user material subroutine into the commercial finite element package LS-DYNA.     

Modeling of structural failure of Zircaloy claddings induced by multiple hydride cracks

Zirconium alloys have been serving as primary structural materials for nuclear fuel claddings. Structural failure analysis under extreme conditions is critical to the assessment of the performance and safety of nuclear fuel claddings. This work focuses on simulating structural failure of Zircaloy tubes with multiple hydride defects through modeling explicit crack propagation in ductile media. First, we developed an integrated cladding failure model by taking into account both crack initiation induced by hydride/matrix interface separation and ligament tearing-off between activated hydride cracks. Second, to accommodate the initiation, propagation, and coalescence of multiple cracks in finite plastic media we incorporated this structural failure model into a coupled continuous/discontinuous Galerkin (DG) based finite element code, a traditionally preferred implicit numerical framework. Third, to improve the adaptive placement of DG interface elements for crack propagation and to identify potential coalescence of cracks due to the interaction between adjacent hydride cracks, we defined a special failure index for the assessment of potential failure zones using both true plastic strain developed and predicted failure strain based on the Johnson–Cook material failure criterion. Finally, by calibrating the proposed material failure model using a cluster of Zircaloy material experimental tests, we successfully simulated a complete failure process of a fuel cladding tube with multiple hydride cracks.     

Locally enhanced Voronoi cell finite element model (LE‐VCFEM) for simulating evolving fracture in ductile microstructures containing inclusions

Ductile heterogeneous materials such as cast aluminum alloys undergo catastrophic failure that initiates with particle fragmentation, which evolves with void growth and coalescence in localized bands of intense plastic deformation and strain softening. The Voronoi cell finite element model (VCFEM), based on the assumed stress hybrid formulation, is unable to account for plastic strain‐induced softening. To overcome this shortcoming of material softening due to plastic strain localization, this study introduces a locally enhanced VCFEM (LE‐VCFEM) for modeling the very complex phenomenon of ductile failure in heterogeneous metals and alloys. In LE‐VCFEM, finite deformation displacement elements are adaptively added to regions of localization in the otherwise assumed stress‐based hybrid Voronoi cell finite element to locally enhance modeling capabilities for ductile fracture. Adaptive h‐refinement is used for the displacement elements to improve accuracy. Damage initiation by particle cracking is triggered by a Weibull model. The nonlocal Gurson–Tvergaard–Needleman model of porous plasticity is implemented in LE‐VCFEM to model matrix cracking. An iterative strain update algorithm is used for the displacement elements. The LE‐VCFEM code is validated by comparing with results of conventional FE codes and experiments with real materials. The effect of various microstructural morphological characteristics is also investigated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microstructural effects on ductile fracture in heterogeneous materials. Part I: Sensitivity analysis with LE-VCFEM

Ductile failure of heterogeneous materials, such as cast aluminum alloys and discretely reinforced aluminums or DRA’s, initiates with cracking, fragmentation or interface separation of inclusions, that is followed by propagation in the matrix by a ductile mechanism of void nucleation and growth. Damage localizes in bands of intense plastic deformation between inclusions and coalesces into a macroscopic crack leading to overall failure. Ductile fracture is very sensitive to the local variations of the microstructure morphology. This is the first of a two part paper on the effect of microstructural morphology and properties on the ductile fracture in heterogeneous ductile materials. In this paper the locally enhanced Voronoi cell finite element method (LE-VCFEM) for rate-dependent porous elastic–viscoplastic materials is used to investigate the sensitivity of strain to failure to loading rates, microstructural morphology and material properties. A model is also proposed for strain to failure, incorporating the effects of important morphological parameters.     

A continuum damage mechanics model for void growth and micro crack initiation

A damage mechanics model is proposed to study the void growth and crack initiation. J₂ incremental flow theory along with a damage variable is used to model the material behaviour in elasto-plastic regime. Large deformation (large rotation and finite strain) finite element analysis is carried out for five different cases. In all the cases it is observed that the triaxiality and the plastic strain play an important role in void growth and crack initiation in ductile material. A failure curve is obtained for the material AISI-1090 spheroidised steel. Finally, it is concluded that the critical value of the damage variable can be taken as a crack initiation parameter.     

A Self-Learning Data-Driven Development of Failure Criteria of Unknown Anisotropic Ductile Materials with Deep Learning Neural Network

This paper first proposes a new self-learning data-driven methodology that can develop the failure criteria of unknown anisotropic ductile materials from the minimal number of experimental tests. Establishing failure criteria of anisotropic ductile materials requires time-consuming tests and manual data evaluation. The proposed method can overcome such practical challenges. The methodology is formalized by combining four ideas: 1) The deep learning neural network (DLNN)-based material constitutive model, 2) Self-learning inverse finite element (SELIFE) simulation, 3) Algorithmic identification of failure points from the self-learned stress-strain curves and 4) Derivation of the failure criteria through symbolic regression of the genetic programming. Stress update and the algorithmic tangent operator were formulated in terms of DLNN parameters for nonlinear finite element analysis. Then, the SELIFE simulation algorithm gradually makes the DLNN model learn highly complex multi-axial stress and strain relationships, being guided by the experimental boundary measurements. Following the failure point identification, a self-learning data-driven failure criteria are eventually developed with the help of a reliable symbolic regression algorithm. The methodology and the self-learning data-driven failure criteria were verified by comparing with a reference failure criteria and simulating with different materials orientations, respectively.     

Multiscale finite element modeling of failure process of composite laminates

A multiscale nonlinear finite element modeling technique is developed in this paper to predict the progressive failure process for composite laminates. A micromechanical elastic–plastic bridging constitutive model, which considers the nonlinear material properties of the constituent fiber and matrix materials and their interaction and the damage and failure in fibrous composites at the fiber and matrix level, is proposed to represent the material behavior of fiber-reinforced composite laminates. The micromechanics constitutive model is employed in the macroscale finite element analysis of structural behavior especially progressive failure process of the fiber-reinforced composites based on a 4-node 24-DOF shear-locking free rectangular composite plate element.     

A finite element analysis of fracture initiation in ductile/brittle periodically layered composites

A near-tip plane strain finite element analysis of a crack terminating at and normal to the interface in a laminate consisting of alternate brittle and ductile layers is conducted under mode-I loading. The studies are carried out for a system representing steel/alumina composite laminate. The Gurson constitutive model, which accounts for the ductile failure mechanisms of microvoid nucleation, growth and coalescence, is employed within the framework of small deformation plasticity theory. Evolution of plastic zone and damage in the ductile layer is monitored with increasing load. High plastic strain localization and microvoid damage accumulation are found to occur along the brittle/ductile interface at the crack-tip. Fracture initiation in the ductile phase is predicted and the conditions for crack renucleation in the brittle layer ahead of the crack are established for the system under consideration. Ductile fracture initiation has been found to occur before plasticity spreads in multiple ductile layers. Effects of material mismatch and yield strength on the plastic zone evolution are briefly discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Determination of deformation and failure properties of ductile materials by means of the small punch test and neural networks

This paper describes an approach to identify plastic deformation and failure properties of ductile materials. The experimental method of the small punch test is used to determine the material response under loading. The resulting load displacement curve is transferred to a neural network, which was trained using load displacement curves generated by finite element simulations of the small punch test and the corresponding material parameters. The simulated material behavior of the specimen is based on the ductile elastoplastic damage theory of Gurson, Tvergaard and Needleman. During a training process the neural network generates an approximated function for the inverse problem relating the material parameters to the shape of the load displacement curve of the small punch test. This technique was tested for three different materials (ductile steels). The identified parameters are verified by testing and simulating notched tensile specimens.     

Dynamic micromechanical modeling of textile composite strength under impact and multi-axial loading

Micromechanical finite element modeling has been employed to define the failure behavior of S2 glass/BMI textile composite materials under impact loading. Dynamic explicit analysis of a representative volume element (RVE) has been performed to explore dynamic behavior and failure modes including strain rate effects, damage localization, and impedance mismatch effects. For accurate reflection of strain rate effects, differences between an applied nominal strain rate across a representative volume element (RVE) and the true realized local strain rates in regions of failure are investigated. To this end, contour plots of strain rate, as well as classical stress contours, are developed during progressive failure. Using a previously developed cohesive element failure model, interfacial failure between tow and matrix phases is considered, as well as classical failure modes such as fiber breakage and matrix microcracking. In-plane compressive and tensile loading have been investigated, including multi-axial loading cases. Highly refined meshes have been employed to ensure convergence and accuracy in such load cases which exhibit large stress gradients across the textile RVE. The effect of strain rate and phase interfacial strength have been included to develop macro-level material failure envelopes for a 2D plain weave and 3D orthogonal microgeometry.