Development of a numerical tool for analysis of ductile fracture in highly deformable thermo-viscoplastic materials

• Grant number: 18/20036-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: July 24, 2019
• End date: July 23, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Civil Engineering - Structural Engineering
• Principal Investigator: João Paulo Pascon
• Grantee: João Paulo Pascon
• Host Investigator: Haim Waisman
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Columbia University in the City of New York, United States

Abstract

This project addresses numerical analysis via finite elements of ductile fracture in highly deformable materials, including thermal and inelastic effects. This topic of research, in addition to being challenging from a complexity point of view, finds numerous practical applications in engineering and industry. Among the most used constitutive laws is the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GNT) damage model, used to predict the growth of voids in porous metals. Regarding numerical modeling, an innovative strategy that has been successfully applied in fracture analysis and crack propagation is the so-called Phase Field Method (MCF), in which the crack is modeled as a continuous entity through a process of regularization of its surface. The main objective of this postdoctoral project abroad is to include the ductile fracture analysis in the numerical formulation of the host group, which has extensive experience in the dynamic analysis, through finite elements, of the brittle fracture process of materials in thermo-viscoplastic regime of large deformations. All the intended research project will be carried out in the host group using computers. In addition to defining the constitutive formulation to be used after an intense bibliographical revision, it is intended to implement the necessary modifications in the computational code of the group and to use the resulting program to simulate several mechanical problems. With the numerical results of these simulations, the effects of temperature and loading rate on the mechanical behavior exhibited by the material in relation to the occurrence of ductile fracture, plastic deformation levels and cracking propagation will be investigated.