Simulation of void growth and coalescence in ferritic steels

A micromechanical model for predicting the failure process required to bring a damaged material element from the onset of void coalescence up to final fracture is developed based on simple geometric arguments. It is shown that the model is able to predict the failure mechanism, which consists of normal fracture in the center and combined normal/shear fracture in the so-called ''shear lips'' at the specimen s rim. The damage evolution and crack path predicted by the model are presented. The effect of the normal and shear failure parameters on the crack-deflection point and several aspects of the finite element mesh are discussed.