Influence of microstructure-driven strain localization on the ductile fracture of metallic alloys

Most models in the literature that are used to understand and predict ductile failure, ductility or fracture toughness implicitly consider that the plastic response of the material is homogeneous at the level of the microstructure. However, in a number of situations, plasticity is intrinsically localized, because the microstructure is spatially heterogeneous, or because the loading leads to strain localization on the microscale, such as in …