Numerical modelling of ductile fracture in steel plates with non-ordinary state-based peridynamics

This paper presents a methodology for the simulation of ductile fracture in steel plates based on non-ordinary state-based Peridynamics. A novel algorithm of crack approximation is proposed in this work, which makes it easier to track crack surface, measure crack length and implement damage criterion in constitutive model when crack propagates. To simulate the plastic behavior of steel and predict the occurrence of fracture, the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) (Tvergaard and Needleman, 1984) constitutive model is adopted to take into account the effect of plasticity, void nucleation and coalescence during the propagation of crack. Two types of plate fracture tests that were conducted by Simonsen and Tomqvist (2004) provide sufficient experimental data, which could be used to calibrate the parameters of constitutive model and validate proposed method. After comparing the results between numerical simulation and experiments, a good agreement has been found and the numerical model developed here has exhibited a certain predictive capacity.