A local criterion for ductile fracture under low-triaxiality axisymmetric stress states

A local criterion is presented for ductile fracture of metals under a wide range of stress triaxiality. In contrast to previous criteria, whose accuracy is generally limited to the narrower stress ranges over which they were originally validated, the proposed criterion is rigorously supported through (1) hypothesis testing against 352 experiments conducted during previous studies of high- and low-triaxiality fracture and (2) micromechanical models of the underlying fracture process. The proposed criterion implies a low-triaxiality fracture cutoff at a stress triaxiality of approximately zero, which is supported by experimental test data. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.