A Presentation On

Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics of Metals

Prepared by
Utkarsh Srivastava
AE18M031

Under the guidance of

Prof. Raghu V. Prakash
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Fracture and fracture toughness of nanopolycrystalline
metals produced by severe plastic deformation
Nanopolycrystalline Metals
 Polycrystalline or multicrystalline materials, or polycrystals are solids
that are composed of many crystallites of varying size and
orientation.
 Crystallites are also referred to as grains. The areas where
crystallites meet are known as grain boundaries.
 A nanocrystalline (NC) material is a polycrystalline material with
a crystallite size of only a few nanometers.
 Nanocrystalline material is commonly defined as a crystallite (grain)
size below 100 nm.
 Synthesis Process
a) HIgh Pressure Torsion
b) Equal channel angular extrusion
c) Repetitive corrugation and straightening, etc.
Characteristics of High-Pressure Torsion-Microstructures
 There is principally no difference in the grain size, even if the strain is
doubled.
 An increase of strain does not change the structure any further and an
equilibrium between grain fragmenting and grain coarsening processes
establishes.
 Lower limit of grain fragmentation is mainly dependent on the purity of the
material, the alloying content, deformation temperature and strain rate.
 A fairly homogeneous microstructure can be introduced in the samples
even if the applied strain is inhomogeneous along the radius.
The common coordinate system that will be used throughout is shown in figure
below in conjunction with an example of saturation microstructures of HPT
processed iron inspected parallel to the major viewing directions.

(a) Example of UFG iron microstructures observed parallel to the principal viewing direction. (b) Principal
specimen manufactured from the HPT discs and their orientations with respect to the introduced coordinate
system.
Figure a)
 In the radial viewing direction (RD) the microstructure exhibits an aligned and
elongated shape, which is a result of the monotonically induced shear deformation.
 Also in the shear direction (SD), the grains show a certain elongated shape.
 In the axial direction (AD), the grains appear more or less equiaxed and look
somewhat larger. {Pancake Structure}
 This distinctive alignment of the structure into the SD, which is sometimes also
named tangential direction (TD),plays an important role for the fracture toughness.
Figure b)
 For Orientation A, the desired crack propagation direction is into the SD and the
crack plane normal is parallel to the AD.
 For Orientation B, the propagation direction is the AD and the crack plane normal
lies parallel to the SD.
 Finally for Orientation C, the crack is supposed to propagate into the RD and the
crack plane normal is parallel to the SD.
Fracture toughness of selected severe plastic deformation materials
a) Severe plastic-deformed copper

 The data clearly demonstrate the impressive increase in strength through grain
refinement but also the deterioration of ductility.
 One exception represents the reduction in area, Z, as aparameter for ductility,
where the decrease is only weakly pronounced.
  Two identical crack profiles
are indicated starting from
the fatigue pre-crack over the
stretched zone to the final
fracture in the upper part of
the image.(fig-a)
 These profiles are used to
evaluate CODi and the
critical arrangement where
the first void coalesce with
the main crack. (fig-b)
 UFG-copper specimen has an average CODi value of 11.4μm.
 The material fails by ductile dimple fracture, with diameters of some micrometres.
 The secondary dimples are shallow their contribution to CODi can be
neglected.A large contribution to CODi is related to plastic deformation underneath
the fracture surface.
 For CG-Cu,owing to the strong lateral contraction of the specimen only bounded
CODi can be estimated. Upper bound-2290µm & Lower bound-240µm. (fig-d)
 This shows as the initiation toughness in terms of CODi is concerned the fracture
toughness decreases when the grain size is reduced.

 Steep increase of J after

crack initiation.
 Much higher JIC,as stable
crack advance up to 0.2mm.
 In CG material the slope
would normally flatten out.
 Pronounced crack path
tortuosity leading to local re-
blunting processes and thus
to a strong increase in the
local COD with almost no
crack advance.
 b)Severe plastic-deformed iron

 The typical microstructure in SPD iron consists of elongated and aligned grains close
to the TD looking into the RD.
 O-A: Fracture surface exhibits intercrystalline fracture with only limited signs of plastic
deformation,hence low fracture toughness.
 Aligned microstructure serving as a weak crack path.
 O-B:A crack deflection almost perpendicular to the expected direction was observed.
• low fracture toughness found for crack propagation along or close to SD.
 O-C:There are secondary cracks or delaminationswhich have the same crack plane
as specimens with Orientation A, which indicates that the low fracture toughness
along the SD-plane seems to trigger the formation of these delaminations.
• The formation of the delaminations during the loading process leads to a change in
the stress state with a reduced stress triaxiality.
• It allows further deformation before failure resulting in a higher fracture toughness
due to a delamination induced toughening effect and the orientation is often called
the crack divider orientation.

 Large differences in the fracture behaviour due to anisotropy.

 The anisotropy can be attributed to the deformation induced elongated
microstructure.
 This microstructure causes a low fracture resistance along the elongated
microstructure and in the other testing orientations crack deflection or the
formation of delaminations causing an extrinsic increase in the fracture
toughness.
C)Nanostructured pearlitic steel

 O-A: Strong decrease of the fracture

toughness with increasing deformation
down to values of only 4MPam^1/2.
 After this high pre-strain it is
comparable to brittle materials.
 It is due to the alignment of the
structure into the direction of the
propagating crack.
 O-B: There is a crack bifurcation
inducing a higher fracture toughness.
• After the highest pre-deformation,
the alignment is perpendicular to
the crack orientation.
 O-C: Again delaminations can be found having their origin in the low fracture
toughness found for cracks propagating along the SD.
 This result demonstrates that in the same material having an exceptionally
high hardness the fracture toughness can vary by a factor of 10.

Knowledge Gap
 The intercrystalline crack path observed in iron and some other bcc metals
provokes a rather poor performance in the fracture toughness. The reason for this
transition from trans- to intercrystalline fracture and why in certain bcc metals this
transition is not found, remains unclear.
 In CG materials, the COD is typically of the order of the grain size and in pure
metals with low inclusion density it can be in the order of millimetre. In order to
obtain a good fracture toughness in UFG and NC materials, the COD should be at
least 10 or better 100 times larger than the grain size.
• The reason that shifts the formation of pores to a very late stage is however
unclear
Conclusion
 In severely plastically deformed materials the fracture toughness can
be smaller than in the CG counterparts.
 However, the damage tolerance in terms of the product of fracture
toughness and strength is very high.
 In contrast to CG metals, the grain shape and the specimen
orientation plays a very important role.
References
1. Lu K, Hansen N. 2009 Structural refinement and deformation mechanisms in
nanostructured metals. Scripta Mater. 60, 1033–1038.
2. Ovid’ko IA, Sheinerman AG. 2010 Ductile versus brittle behaviour of pre-cracked
nanocrystalline and ultrafine-grained materials. Acta Mater. 58, 5286–5294.
3. Hohenwarter A, Pippan R. 2010 Anisotropic fracture behavior of ultrafine-grained
iron. Mater.Sci. Eng. A 527, 2649–2656.
4. Kammerhofer C, Hohenwarter A, Scheriau S, Brantner HP, Pippan R. 2013
Influence of morphology and structural size on the fracture behavior of a
nanostructured pearilic steel. Mater. Sci. Eng. A 585, 190–196.
5. Hohenwarter A, Pippan R. 2015 Fracture and fracture toughness of
nanopolycrystalline metals produced by severe plastic deformation. Phil. Trans. R.
Soc. A 373: 20140366.
Thank You