A fracture criterion for ductile metals based on critical damage parameters Dedicated to Professor Holm Altenbach on the occasion of his 65th birthday

The paper deals with the effect of different stress-state-dependent damage mechanisms on the onset of fracture in ductile metals. A continuum damage model is discussed using a strain tensor as an appropriate damage variable. It takes into account the influence of stress state on the damage condition and on the evolution equations of damage strains. A fracture condition based on critical damage parameters is developed analyzing results of a series of new experiments with different biaxially loaded specimens. After the tests, fracture modes are visualized by scanning electron microscopy. Numerical simulations of the biaxial experiments elucidate the stress states in critical regions of the specimens which are used to explain formation of different damage and fracture modes on the micro-level. Analysis of numerically predicted damage strains for different loading cases leads to a generalized fracture criterion.