An analysis of dynamic, ductile crack growth in a double edge cracked specimen

Dynamic crack growth is analysed numerically for a plane strain double edge cracked specimen subject to symmetric impulsive tensile loading at the two ends. The material behavior is described in terms of an elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model that accounts for ductile fracture by the nucleation and subsequent growth of voids to coalescence. Two populations of second phase particles are represented, including large inclusions or inclusion colonies with low strength, which result in large voids near the crack tip at an early stage, and small second phase particles, which require large strains before cavities nucleate. The crack growth velocities determined here are entirely based on the ductile failure predictions of the material model, and thus the present study is free from ad hoc assumptions regarding appropriate dynamic crack growth criteria. Adiabatic heating due to plastic dissipation and the resulting thermal softening are accounted for in the analyses. Different prescribed impact velocities, inclusion spacings and values of the inclusion nucleation stress are considered. Predictions for the dynamic crack growth behavior and for the time variation of crack tip characterizing parameters are obtained for each case analyzed.