Ductile Failure Prediction of U-Notched Bainitic Functionally Graded Steel Specimens Using the Equivalent Material Concept Combined with the Averaged Strain Energy Density Criterion

Abstract

In this paper, the ductile fracture of bainitic functionally graded steel has been studied. Fracture tests was performed on U-notched specimens made of bainitic functionally graded steel under mode I. The averaged strain energy density criterion combined with equivalent material concept was employed to predict the ductile fracture of bainitic functionally graded steel. For this purpose, first, based on equivalent material concept, the mechanical properties of virtual brittle functionally graded steel were obtained. Then the averaged value of strain energy density over a well-defined control volume was calculated by finite element analysis for U-notched virtual brittle functionally graded steel. After that, the fracture loads was obtained based on the averaged strain energy density criterion. The agreement between experimental fracture loads and theoretical predictions was good.