Damage mechanisms and fracture toughness of GlidCop® CuAl25 IG0 copper alloy

Crack nucleation and growth behaviour are important parameters in deciding about the applicability of the dispersion strengthened copper alloy CuAl25 in components such as the first wall and divertor in ITER. The effective strain to fracture of notched tensile specimens decreased with increasing stress state triaxiality and with increasing temperature at constant constraint level following the Rice and Tracey model for void growth. In three point bend tests, the strain for stable crack initiation decreased significantly with increasing temperature. The CuAl25 alloy failed by a ductile microvoid mechanism where extensive void nucleation occurred at very low strains at grain boundaries with increasing stress state triaxiality. At elevated temperatures the fracture surface morphology changed from microvoid to intergranular fracture in three-point bend tests.