Effect of triaxiality on void growth and coalescence in model materials investigated by X-ray tomography

Void growth and coalescence/linkage, which play significant roles during ductile fracture processes, are strongly influenced by stress triaxiality in a deforming solid. The stress state can be changed by cutting notches in a tensile sample. In the current paper, void growth and linkage of an artificial void array embedded in a notched model material was studied by X-ray computed tomography, coupled with in situ tensile deformation. The cross-sectional shape of the tensile specimens was square, and a pair of notches was cut along only one direction. Thus, the lateral principal stress does not have an isotropic distribution: the principal stress along the notch direction is considered to be higher. This technique allowed us to explore the entire process of growth and linkage events of a void array embedded in a metal matrix. The notch effect creates a marked acceleration in void growth, leading to a large reduction in the linkage strains, as compared with similarly fabricated unnotched samples. The standard models for coalescence could not provide consistent predictions of the measured notch effect. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.