Industrial metal forming operations generally require several deformation steps in order to create the final product. The mechanical behavior of materials undergoing strain path changes can be very different from those deformed in a given direction to fracture. The work presented here employed laser drilled model materials to better understand the effect of pre-strains and strain path changes on void growth and linkage leading to fracture is studied. The experimental results show that increasing pre-strain results in faster void growth which was justified in terms work hardening rate in the sample. Scanning electron microscope images revealed that the ductility of the sample decreased with increasing pre-strain but only slightly compared to the large decrease in far field strain at failure. This suggests that pre-strain affects strain localization significantly and to a lesser extent the ductility. Finally a finite element model has been built to predict the linkage between voids.

The hot-workability of Titanium (Ti) alloys is of current interest to the aerospace industry due to its widespread application in the design of strong and light-weight aircraft structural components and engine parts. Motivated by the need for accurate simulation of large scale plastic deformation in metals that exhibit macroscopic plastic anisotropy, such as Ti, a constitutive model is developed for anisotropic materials undergoing plastic deformation coupled with ductile damage in the form of internal cavitation. The model is developed from a rigorous micromechanical basis, following well-known previous works in the field. The model incorporates the porosity and void aspect ratio as internal damage variables, and seeks to provide a more accurate prediction of damage growth compared to previous existing models. A closed form expression for the macroscopic yield locus is derived using a Hill-Mandel homogenization and limit analysis of a porous representative volume element. Analytical expressions are also developed for the evolution of the internal variables, porosity and void shape. The developed yield criterion is validated by comparison to numerically determined yield loci for specific anisotropic materials, using a numerical limit analysis technique developed herein. The evolution laws for the internal variables are validated by comparison with direct finite element simulations of porous unit cells. Comparison with previously published results in the literature indicates that the new model yields better agreement with the numerically determined yield loci for a wide range of loading paths. Use of the new model in continuum finite element simulations of ductile fracture may be expected to lead to improved predictions for damage evolution and fracture modes in plastically anisotropic materials.

This paper describes a method by means of FE code DEFORMTM-2D to simulate the formation of central bursting defects in extrusion processes; the effect of various extrusion parameters such as half die angle, reduction in area, friction factor, and strain hardening exponent on the maximum damage value is examined. The differences between various ductile fracture criteria are compared and critical damage value(CDV) of the material AA6061 is found. In addition, we get the strength coefficient(K), strain hardening exponent(n), CDV and friction factor(m) by material tests, such as uniform tensile test, notched tensile test, compression test, and ring compression test. Finally, the cold multistage extrusion experiment was conducted to verify the accuracy of the finite element simulations. From the continuous three pass extrusion experimental data, no fracture in the center of the extruded product was found. From the analytical data, it was known that the maximum damage value 1.0479 for third pass extrusion was small than critical damage value 1.068, thus, central bursting defects didn¡¦t occur in extrusion processes.

Integrated interpretation of three-dimensional seismic and well-logging data reveals a prominent “pop-up” structure associated with the VLE 400 fault on the regional unconformity between the Eocene and Miocene in the VLE 196 field, Maracaibo basin, Venezuela. The VLE 400 fault family, an eastern splay of the left-lateral Icotea fault in the basin, played an important role in hydrocarbon migration and accumulation in the field. Hydrocarbons accumulated to the east of the fault but not to the west. The “pop-up” structure on the Eocene unconformity has a four -way dip closure, straddling the fault and extending to the west of the fault. Structures of the Misoa Formation, which is the main reservoir developed below the unconformity in the basin, differ from the structure of the unconformity. The structure of the Misoa Formation shows a tilted uplift of the eastern block of the fault dipping toward the east caused by thrust tectonic movements. Thrust movement and following strike-slip movements provided additional accommodation space to the west of the fault and generated expanded thickness of Eocene sediments compared to the area east of the fault. The thickness of the Misoa Formation east and west of the fault shows no significant changes. Expanded sediments overlie the Misoa Formation in the western block in lateral contact with Misoa sediments eastern block act as a lateral seal. Ductile movement of the Guasare Formation shale contributed to the lateral sealing of the fault against the reservoir rocks in the eastern block. Mobilization of the Guasare Formation modified the structure of overlying formations including the anticline of the Eocene unconformity. The growth strata provide useful information of reactivation of e xisting faults, especially subtle movements which are not recognized by conventional seismic interpretation. Growth strata isochrons shows subtle reactivation of the VLE 400 fault family during Miocene time.

The failure mechanism in ductile materials involves void nucleation, their growth and subsequent coalescence to form the fracture surface. The voids are generated due to fracture or debonding of second phase particles or at slip band intersections. The triaxial stress field prevailing around a crack tip and in the necking region strongly influences the growth of these voids. In the initial stages of deformation, these microscale voids are often sufficiently small so that they exist entirely within a single grain of a polycrystalline material. Further, single crystals are used in high technology applications like turbine blades. This motivates the need to study void growth in a single crystal while investigating ductile fracture. Thus, the objectives of this work are to analyze the interaction between a notch tip and void as well as the growth and coalescence of a periodic array of voids under different states of stress in ductile FCC single crystals. First, the growth of a cylindrical void ahead of a notch tip in ductile FCC single crystals is studied. To this end, 2D plane strain finite element simulations are carried out under mode I, small scale yielding conditions, neglecting elastic anisotropy. In most of these computations, the orientation of the FCC single crystal is chosen so that notch lies in the (010) plane, with notch front along the [101] direction and potential crack growth along [101]. This orientation has been frequently observed in experimental studies on fracture of FCC single crystals. Three equivalent slip systems are considered which are deduced by combining three pairs of 3D conjugate slip systems producing only in-plane deformation. Attention is focused on the effects of crystal hardening, ratio of void diameter to spacing from the notch on plastic flow localization in the ligament connecting the notch and the void as well as their growth. The results show strong interaction between slip shear bands emanating from the notch and angular sectors of single slip forming around the void leading to intense plastic strain development in the ligament. However, the ductile fracture processes are retarded by increase in hardening of the single crystal and decrease in ratio of void diameter to spacing from the notch. In order to examine the effect of crystal orientation, computations are performed with an orientation wherein the three effective slip systems are rotated about the normal to the plane of deformation. A strong influence of crystal orientation on near-tip void growth and plastic slip band development is observed. Further, in order to study the synergistic, cooperative growth of multiple voids ahead of the notchtip, an analysis is performed by considering a series of voids located ahead of the tip. It is found that enhanced void growth occurs at higher load levels as compared to the single void model. Next, the growth and coalescence of a periodic array of cylindrical voids in a FCC single crystal is analyzed under different stress states by employing a 2D plane strain, unit cell approach. The orientation of the crystal studied here considers [101] and [010] crystal directions along the minor and major principal stress directions, respectively. Three equivalent slip systems, similar to those in the notch and void simulations are taken into account. Fringe contours of plastic slip and evolution of macroscopic hydrostatic stress and void volume fraction are examined. A criterion for unstable void growth which leads to onset of void coalescence is established. The effects of various stress triaxialities, initial void volume fraction and hardening on void growth and coalescence is assessed. It is observed that plastic slip activity around the void intensifies with increase in stress triaxiality. The macroscopic hydrostatic stress increases with deformation, reaches a peak value and subsequently decreases rapidly. An increase in stress triaxiality enhances the macroscopic hydrostatic stress sustained by the unit cell and promotes void coalescence. The stress triaxiality also has a profound effect on the shape of the void profile. The values of critical void volume fraction and critical strain, which mark onset of void coalescence, decrease within crease in stress triaxiality. However, the onset of void coalescence is delayed by increase in hardening and decrease initial void volume fraction.

Cette étude concerne la déchirure ductile des aciers à haute limite d'élasticitée utilises pour la construction des gazoducs. La microstructure et la réponse mécanique de deux toles et d'un tube en acier X100 (R =100ksi = 690MPa) ont été éetudiees. Ces materiaux possedent une microstructure ferrito-bainitique. Le programme expérimental porte sur des éprouvettes lisses, des eprouvettes entaillees et des éprouvettes fissurees. Des eprouvettes de traction simple suivant trois directions principales ont été utilisees. Ces essais ont montré que les aciers etudies présentent une forte anisotropie plastique. La limite d'élasticite des toles se trouve au-dessous de la valeur requise pour l'acier X100. Ce n'est qu'après la production de tubes, qui implique une déformation plastique lors de la mise<br />en forme, que l'acier atteint le grade X100.<br />Les mécanismes de rupture sont etudies par microcopie optique et électronique a balayage sur des coupes<br />métallographiques et des examens fractographiques de l'ensemble des éprouvettes (traction, AE, Charpy V et<br />CT). La naissance de l'endommagement se caractérise par la rupture ou la décohesion des sulfures de calcium et des nitrures de titane. Deux modes de coalescence sont observés : la striction interne et la coalescence en bande.<br />L'effet d'une pré-deformation sur les caracteristiques de traction et sur la ténacite est etudie en pre-deformant des barreaux de traction de 1.6%, 3.6% et 5.9% de déformation plastique. Une prée-deformation provoque une augmentation de la limite d'élasticite et de la resistance a traction, mais diminue la téenacite du materiau. La propagation ductile dynamique sur de grandes distances (100 a 200mm) est étudiee a l'aide d'une experience de rupture à grande vitesse (20 à 40m/s) de grandes toles qui permet de reproduire la rupture par cisaillement observe lors de l'éclatement des pipelines. La resistance a la propagation sur de longues distances est éevaluee par le taux de dissipation d'éenergie. Nos essais realises sur les deux toles confirment la tendance observée precedemment selon laquelle les structures ferrito-bainitiques permettent d'obtenir un bon compromis entre la ténacite et leur limite d'élasticite. La simulation par éléments finis de la dechirure ductile des toles a été effectuee. Les simulations sont basees sur une extension du modèle Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman incluant une représentation de l'anisotropie plastique et de la germination de cavités. Un nouveau critere de plasticité anisotrope recemment developpe pour les alliages<br />d'aluminium est utilisé. Les parametres sont ajustes sur de petites eprouvettes. La transférabilite sur les grandes<br />plaques en pleine épaisseur est verifiee. Le modele permet de représenter les caracteristiques principales des essais de déchirure ductile dynamique : la courbe de chargement, la forme du front de fissure, le Développement de la striction en pointe de fissure et le taux de dissipation d'énergie.

The aim of this thesis is to establish the extent to which materials can be deformed under shear-dominant loadings. Custom Al-6061-T6 tubular specimens are loaded under radial and corner paths of tension and shear to failure. During the experiments, the deformation is monitored in a test section designed to have nearly uniform stress and deformation at large strains while providing minimum constraint to the development of localization that precedes failure. The recorded shear stress-rotation and axial stress-displacement responses exhibit maxima beyond which deformation localizes in a narrow band that is of the order of the 1 mm wall thickness of the test section. For the mainly shear dominated stress paths followed, deformation remained nearly planar allowing for the establishment of both the true stresses and the local deformation strictly from measurements. Results from thirteen radial path experiments as well as from four corner path experiments show the strain at failure to monotonically increase as the mean stress decreases, a result that is in contrast with previously reported results for Al alloys. Also, the measured failure strains are significantly larger than previously reported values. Analysis of corner stress paths investigates the path dependence of localization and failure. Results show little path dependence on the failure strains, but some path dependence on stress maxima and failure stresses. Furthermore, statistical grain-level strain estimates from five of the stress paths revealed a significant variation in strain across the macroscopically observed localization zone. In the neighborhood of the crack tip strains with 25-100% higher levels than the macroscopic values were recorded. This indicates that localization also occurs at a smaller scale than hitherto understood. The difference between the macro strain at failure and the average grain level values increased as the axial/shear stress ratio increased. / text

The study of dross in ductile cast iron main shafts was performed at Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan AB and presented in this master thesis. The purpose of the study was to obtain answers to why dross defects were present in some of the foundry's casted main shafts, with the main problem located at the flange of the shaft. The chemical composition of the dross formations and which steps in the casting process that increased the dross formation were of interest. The study only included dross in main shafts manufactured at Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan AB. Dross particles form when elements such as Mg, Ca, Si and Mn react with O. These elements, which are highly reactive to O, are used in ductile cast irons to achieve the spheroidal graphite nodules that regulate the cast materials ductile properties. If a higher amount of dross particles has formed, the particles will start to cluster, resulting in a growing dross formation. Dross formations works as surface crack initiation points and reduces the castings fatigue strength and ductility. During the study it was seen that the cause of dross formations is a combination of many parameters increasing the melts exposure to O resulting in dross defects. The dross formations could be connected to worn out ladles, low melt temperatures, incorrect additions of Mg treatment, lack of an extra slag removal station and finally turbulence as the melt were poured into the mould. At Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan AB a greater part of the main shafts containing dross defects were a result of worn out ladles and low melt temperatures. The types of dross found in the main shaft material were mainly Mg, Ca, Si and Al which had reacted with O. S bonded with Mg and Ca was also detected in the dross formations. It was shown that the dross particles could be derived from charge material, Mg treatment and inoculation. To avoid dross defects the first step would be to set up an extra slag station, shorten the interval of maintenance of the ladles and to better adjust the melt temperature to the condition of the specific ladle. To minimize dross due to excess Mg a better controlled process would be recommended with an increased number of monitored manufacturing parameters. / Studien av dross i axlar tillverkade av segjärn gjordes hos Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan AB och presenteras i denna examensrapport. Syftet med studien var att hitta anledningar till varför drossdefekter bildas i flänsen på vissa av gjuteriets tillverkade axlar. Drossens kemiska komposition likväl de steg i tillverkningsprocessen som inverkade på drossbildning var av intresse. Studien inkluderade endast drossdefekter i axlar tillverkade av Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan AB. Drosspartiklas bildas när till exempel Mg, Ca, Si och Mg reagerar med O. Dessa ämnen, vilka är väldigt reaktiva med syre, används vid framställning av segjärn för att de sfäriska grafitnodulerna som starkt reglerar materialets duktila egenskaper ska bildas. Ett större antal drosspartiklar i en smälta leder till kluster av dross vilka växer i takt med att nya partiklar bildas. Dross fungerar som sprickinitieringspunkter i gjutgodsytor och reducerar godsets utmattningshållfasthet och duktilitet.   Under studien kunde det ses att dross bildas på grund av en kombination av parametrar som ökar smältans exponering av syre vilket resulterar i drossdefekter. Drossdefekter kunde kopplas till slitna skänkar, låga smälttemperaturer, felaktig mängd magnesiumbehandling, brist på en extra slaggstation och slutligen turbulens när smätan hälls i formen. Hos Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan AB är en stor del av axlarna med drossdefekter ett resultat av framför allt slitna skänkar och låga smälttemperaturer. Vid analys sågs det att ett antal olika typer av drosspartiklar kan bildas i det duktila gjutjärn som används till axlarna; främst Mg, Ca, Si och Al som reagerat med O. Mg och Ca som bundit med S kunde också hittas i vissa av de studerade drossformationerna. Det kunde visas att den kemiska kompositionen i drosspartiklarna var härrörande från grundmaterialet, magnesiumbehandlingen och ympmedlet.  Ett första steg Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan AB skulle kunna ta för att undvika drossdefekter är att ha en extra slaggstation, införa tätare underhåll av skänkarna och bättre anpassa smälttemperaturen till skicket på den specifika skänken. För att minimera dross som bildats på grund av ett överskott av Mg skulle en mer kontrollerad process rekommenderas med ett ökat antal bevakade tillverkningsparametrar.

A systematic method for quantitative characterisation of the topological properties of two-phase materials has been developed, which offers an effective way for the characterisation of twophase materials. In particular, a topological transformation has been proposed, which allows a two-phase microstructure with any grain size, grain shape and phase distribution to be transformed into a three-microstructural-element body (3-E body). It has been shown that the transformed 3·E body is mechanically equivalent along the aligned direction with the original microstructure. The Hall·Petch relation developed originally for single-phase metals and alloys has been successfully extended to two~ductile-phase alloys. It has been shown that the extended Hall- Petch relation can separate the individual contribution to the overall efficiency of different kinds of boundaries as obstacles to dislocation motion. A new approach to deformation behaviour of two-ductile-phase alloys has been developed based on Eshelby's continuum transformation theory and the microstructural characterisation developed in this thesis. In contrast to the existing theories of plastic deformation, this approach can consider the effect of microstructural parameters, such as volume fraction, grain size, grain shape and phase distribution. In particular, the interactions between particles of the same phase have also been taken into account by the topological transformation. Consequently, the newly developed theory can be applied in principle to a composite with any volume fraction. This approach has been applied to various two-ductile-phase alloys to predict the true stress·true strain curves, the internal stresses and the in situ stress and plastic strain distribution in each microstructural element. It is found that the theoretical predictions are in very good agreement with the experimental results drawn from the literature. A new approach has also been developed for the prediction of the Young's moduli of particulate two-phase composites. Applications of this approach to AVSiCp and Co/WCp composite systems and polymeric matrix composites have shown that the present approach is superior to both the Hashin and Shtrikman's bounds and the mean field theory in terms of the good agreement between the theoretical predictions and the experimental results from the literature. Furthermore, this approach can be extended to predict the Young's moduli of multiphase composites by iteration. This iteration approach has been tested on some Ti-6Al- 4V-TiB composites. An experimental investigation has being carried out to study the in situ Ti-6AI-4V-TiB (hereafter, Ti/TiB is used for convenience) metal matrix composites produced through a rapid solidification route. Production of in situ Ti/fiB metal matrix composites through rapid solidification route can completely exclude problems such as wetting and chemical reaction encountered by alternative production routes. The relevant microstructural phenomena in in situ Ti/TiB metal matrix composites, such as the growth habit of TiB phase and the w-phase transformation, have also been investigated. The TiB phase in the consolidated composites exhibits two distinguished morphologies: needle-shaped TiB and nearly equiaxed TiB. The needle-shaped TiB phase formed mainly from the solidification process always grows along the [010] direction of the B27 unit cell, leaving the cross-section of the needles consistently enclosed either by (100) and {101 1 type planes or by (100) and {102l type planes. It is also found that the cross-sections of the nearlyequiaxed TiB particles formed from the B supersaturated Ti solid solution are also bounded by the same planes as above, although the growth rate along the [010] direction has been considerably reduced. Experiments have also been perfonned to investigate the effect of pre-hipping heat treatments on the microstructure of RS products. It is found that pre-hipping heat treatments at a temperature below 800°C can lead to the precipitation of fine equiaxed TiB particles from the B super-saturated Ti solid solution, which are uniformly distributed throughout the a+B matrix. The majority of those TiB precipitates do not grow up by Ostwald ripening process after long time exposure at higher temperature. Microstructural examination has confirmed the existence of a B to w transformation in RS Ti- 6AI-4V alloys with and without B addition after consolidation. In addition, the B to w transformation has also been observed in RS Ti-Mn-B alloys after consolidation. Systematic electron diffraction work on the B-phase offers a strong experimental evidence for the B to W transformation mechanism proposed by Williams et al.

Industrial metal forming operations generally require several deformation steps in order to create the final product. The mechanical behavior of materials undergoing strain path changes can be very different from those deformed in a given direction to fracture. The work presented here employed laser drilled model materials to better understand the effect of pre-strains and strain path changes on void growth and linkage leading to fracture is studied. The experimental results show that increasing pre-strain results in faster void growth which was justified in terms work hardening rate in the sample. Scanning electron microscope images revealed that the ductility of the sample decreased with increasing pre-strain but only slightly compared to the large decrease in far field strain at failure. This suggests that pre-strain affects strain localization significantly and to a lesser extent the ductility. Finally a finite element model has been built to predict the linkage between voids.