A Cohesive Zone Model for Crack Growth Simulation in AISI 304 Steel

Stable ductile crack growth in 3 mm thick AISI 304 stainless steel specimens has been investigated experimentally and numerically. Multi-linear Isotropic Hardening method coupled with the Von-Mises yield criterion was adopted for modeling elasto-plastic behavior of the material. Mode-I CT fracture specimens have been tested to generate experimental load-displacement-crack growth data during stable crack growth. The critical fracture energy (JIc) was then determined using the finite elements results in conjunction with the experimental data. The effect of in-plane constraints on the numerical-experimental JIc calculation was then investigated. The results of finite element solution were used to tailor an exponential CZM model for simulation of mode-I stable crack growth in CT specimens. It is found that the adopted CZM is generally insensitive to the applied constraints to the crack tip stress state and thus it can effectively be used for simulating crack growth in this material.