Visualization by X-ray tomography of void growth and coalescence leading to fracture in model materials

The literature contains many models for the process of void nucleation, growth and coalescence leading to ductile fracture. However, these models lack in-depth experimental validation, in part because void coalescence is difficult to capture experimentally. In this paper, an embedded array of holes is obtained by diffusion bonding a sheet filled with laser-drilled holes between two intact sheets. The experiments have been performed with both pure copper and Glidcop. Using X-ray computed tomography, we show that void growth and coalescence (or linkage) are well captured in both materials. The Brown and Embury model for void coalescence underestimates coalescence strains due to constraining effects. However, both the Rice and Tracey model for void growth and the Thomason model for void coalescence give good predictions for copper samples when stress triaxiality is considered. The Thomason model, however, fails to predict coalescence for the Glidcop samples; this is primarily due to secondary void nucleation.