A method for determining the ductile damage parameters of high strength steels and weld metal

The microvoid based Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) model is a powerful tool for predicting ductile fracture behavior, and application of such model to steels and welds needs the identification of microvoid related damage parameters. Currently, there is no standard damage parameter identification method available. In this study the previously proposed complete Gurson model (CGM) where a physical void coalescence mechanism is incorporated into the GTN model is revisited. According to the CGM, the void nucleation process dictates ductile fracture. By adopting the cluster nucleation model with an effective initial void volume fraction as the only controlling parameter, a method is proposed to explicitly determine the effective initial void volume fraction from the strain at maximum load and strain at fracture of a specially designed notched tensile specimen. The proposed equation has been experimentally verified by applying to three high strength materials, including a X80 pipeline steel and associated weld metal, and a 15CrMo steel. A general procedure for damage parameter identification is also suggested. It is argued that the obtained effective initial void volume fraction can be treated as a type of material ductility indicator.