Ductile fracture prediction of additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4 V alloy based on void growth and coalescence of a unit-cell model

Abstract

In this work, we have studied the fracture mechanism and proposed a micromechanical method with a unit cell model to predict the ductile fracture of additively manufactured (AMed) Ti-6Al-4 V alloy. The tensile experiments with smooth round bars and notched round bars were conducted to investigate the mechanical properties and ductile fracture behavior of materials. The proposed unit-cell model was validated by quasi-static tensile fracture tests to predict the ductile failure of titanium alloy manufactured by laser power bed fusion (L-PBF) under different stress states, which include a wide range of stress triaxialities. An equivalent initial void fraction was introduced to evaluate the ductile behavior of the titanium alloy. Our investigation shows that the stress states significantly influence the void coalescence behavior of AMed Ti-6Al-4 V alloy, and the fracture locus of L-PBF fabricated Ti-6Al-4 V alloy under different stress states was successfully predicted by the proposed unit-cell model under proportional loading. Our study provides useful guidance for the future design and application of metal materials for additive manufacturing.