Monte-Carlo simulation of crack propagation in polycrystalline materials

The paper deals with a model for transgranular crack propagation in a polycrystalline metals and alloys. According to experimental observations, the fracture surfaces (facets) remain perfectly flat within each individual grain, but the orientation of facets fluctuates from grain to grain. At the bigger length scales, this behaviour results in the roughness of fracture surface. The polycrystalline structure of simulated material is represented by pseudo-3D grain array. The "grain by grain" mode of crack propagation is simulated in terms of a "continuous time" kinetic Monte-Carlo (MC). The stochastic nature of the proposed model allows to estimate energy consumption during fracture and fracture surface topography, and provides a natural explanation for the experimentally observed scatter of macroscopic fracture characteristics. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.