Ductile fracture of pure copper: An experimental and numerical study

This paper describes the results of interrupted tensile tests carried out on 99.95% pure copper specimens over a range of stress triaxiality conditions. The tested specimens were sectioned and polished to identify the conditions at which voids nucleate and coalesce before the final fracture takes place. Results show that void nucleation and coalescence both have a very strong dependence on stress triaxiality, but appear to be less sensitive to strain-rate. Based on the combined experimental and numerical results, a new criterion for void nucleation is proposed as a function of stress triaxiality.