Introduction-NTNU.docVIP

Fracture – continuum mechanics and materials aspects This chapter presents a review of the field of fracture mechanics, with particular concern for its application to steels. Section 1 gives a very brief history of the developments within the field, while the particular aspects of fracture mechanics are discussed in Section 2. Section 3 concerns the main features of the continuum mechanics fields in relation to cracks. Although no direct use of e.g. micromechanical criteria for cleavage fracture is made in the papers presented in this thesis, reference to such models are included Section 4,with Section 5 focusing on their use to predict cleavage fracture. The discussions on micromechanisms and local criteria for cleavage are introduced to put the results presented in the papers into perspective. The main features of ductile fracture are presented in Section 6, with special reference to the Gurson model and its use for simulation of ductile crack growth. Finally, Section 7 discusses special aspects of the ductile to brittle transition in steels. A brief history of fracture mechanics The problems with fracture have puzzled man for centuries. In early structural design, using brittle materials such as rock, strategies to avoid fracture was sought by mainly introducing compressive loads. With the development of more efficient ways of manufacturing metals, mainly steels, more ductile materials opened for new design possibilities allowing for primary tensile loads to operate. However, although more ductile behaviour could be expected, the problems with fracture were becoming of increasing importance. In the 19th century a fundamental understanding of the mechanics of fracture was still lacking, and the rational basis for what was to become the field of fracture mechanics was first put forth in the beginning of the 20th century. The first important result was presented by Inglis in 1913, when he showed that the stress level ahead of an elliptical hole would appro