Ductile fracture – Influence of heterogeneous microstructure on nucleation, growth and coalescence mechanisms

Abstract : Investigations at the microstructure scale are essential if one wants to predict accurately ductile fracture of metallic materials under complex multiaxial and non-proportional loadings. An advanced finite element approach based on a level set formalism and body-fitted immersed meshing capabilities enable the modeling of nucleation, growth and coalescence mechanisms for complex 3D microstructures and under large plastic strain. Applications on real microstructures (coming from in-situ laminography) and exact boundary conditions (thanks to Digital Volume Correlation) are studied and discussed for different loading conditions.