Use of a modified Gurson model approach for the simulation of ductile fracture by growth and coalescence of microvoids under low, medium and high stress triaxiality loadings

In the paper the modified Gurson model is developed for the simulation of damage growth and ductile fracture under low, medium and high stress triaxiality loadings. A new coalescence criterion is introduced based on a simple assumption that singular value of the effective stress triggers the coalescence of microvoids in materials. According to the introduced approach the void coalescence described by means of the modified Gurson model is not only determined by the so-called critical, constant void volume fraction but also by the stress triaxiality ratio. Computational simulations have been carried out for Al 2024–T351 aluminum specimens. In order to find some improvements of micromechanical damage models, two different approaches have been compared for modeling the shear driven microvoid coalescence under low stress triaxiality loadings.