Ductile Fracture Predictions of High Strength Steel (EH36) using Linear and Non-Linear Damage Evolution Models

Abstract

A study of the damage evolution laws for ductile materials was carried out to predict the ductile fracture behavior of a marine structural steel (EH36). We conducted proportional and non-proportional stress tests in the experiments. The existing 3-D fracture strain surface was newly calibrated using two fracture parameters: the average stress triaxiality and average normalized load angle taken from the proportional tests. Linear and non-linear damage evolution models were taken into account in this study. A damage exponent of 3.0 for the non-linear damage model was determined based on a simple optimization technique, for which proportional and non-proportional stress tests were simultaneously used. We verified the validity of the three fracture models: the newly calibrated fracture strain model, linear damage evolution model, and non-linear damage evolution model for the tensile tests of the asymmetric notch specimens. Because the stress evolution pattern for the verification tests remained at mode I in terms of the linear elastic fracture mechanics, the three models did not show significant differences in their fracture initiation predictions.