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.