The influence of aluminium alloy anisotropic texture on crack-tip plasticity

Crack-tip plasticity in textured aluminium alloys was numerically analysed using an anisotropic yield function and an isotropic hardening law as the material constitutive response. Four real textures obtained from extrusions of rectangular and square shapes as well as five ideal textures typical of rolled products were considered and predicted crack-tip plastic zones were compared with those obtained using the isotropic von Mises yield criterion. The use of the anisotropic yield function revealed important differences in crack-tip plasticity compared with the isotropic case. The plastic zone features obtained for different textures were compared to single crystal results published in the open literature and similar crack-tip plastic strain localization was observed.