TITLE:
Ductile Fracture Characterization for Medium Carbon Steel Using Continuum Damage Mechanics
AUTHORS:
Stergios Pericles Tsiloufas, Ronald Lesley Plaut
KEYWORDS:
Continuum Damage Mechanics; Tensile Testing; Numerical Simulation; Medium Carbon Steels
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.3 No.11,
November
27,
2012
ABSTRACT: This paper presents the ductility characterization for a medium carbon steel, for two microstructural conditions, that has been evaluated using the continuum damage mechanics theory, as proposed by Kachanov and developed by Lemaitre. Tensile tests were carried out using loading-unloading cycles in order to capture the gradual deterioration of the elastic modulus, which may be linked to the ductile damage increase with increasing plastic strain. The mechanical parameters for the isotropic damage evolution equation were obtained and then used as inputs for a plasticity-damage coupled nu- merical algorithm, validated through numerical simulations of the experimental tensile tests. A comparison between the SAE 1050 steels studied and two carbon steel alloys (obtained from the literature), provided some basic understanding of the influence of the carbon level on the evolution of the damage parameters. An empiric relationship for this set of parameters, which can provide useful data for preliminary studies envisaging prediction of ductile failure in carbon steels, is also presented.