Prediction of Ductile Crack Growth from Ductility of Steel

This study pays attention to reveal the material properties that control resistance curve for ductile crack growth (CTOD-R curve) on the basis of the mechanism for ductile crack growth, so that the R-curve could be numerically predicted only from those properties. The crack growth tests using 3-point bend specimens with fatigue pre-crack were conducted for two steels that have different ductile crack growth resistance with almost the same CTOD level for crack initiation, whereas both steels have the same “Mechanical properties” in terms of strength and work hardenability. The observation of crack growth behaviors provided that different mechanisms between ductile crack initiations from fatigue pre-crack and subsequent growth process could be applied. It was found that two “Mechanical properties” associated with ductile damage of steel could mainly influence CTOD-R curve; one is a resistance of ductile crack initiation estimated with critical local strain for ductile cracking from the surface of notched specimen, and the other one is a dependence of stress triaxiality on ductility obtained with circumferentially notched round-bar specimens. The damage model for numerically simulating the R-curve was proposed taking the two “ductile properties” into account, where ductile crack initiation from crack-tip was in accordance with critical local strain based criterion, and subsequent crack growth GTN (Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman) based triaxiality dependent damage criterion. The proposed model accurately predicted the measured R-curve for the two steels used with the same “strength properties” through ductile crack initiation to growth.