Stress triaxiality effect on fracture behavior of IMI-834 titanium alloy: A micromechanics approach

In the present work, Rice-Tracey model has been explored to analyze the integrity of a near-alpha IMI-834 titanium alloy. In order to simulate the varying state of stress triaxiality at component level, axi-symmetrically notched round bars with constraint factors ranging from 0.5-2.5; models of tensile specimens created in ANSYS were used. The FEA simulations have been found to be in good agreement with experimental results. Fracture stresses predicted by FEA simulation are in good agreement with the experimentally determined values. Marginal discrepancy in the high constraint regime may be attributed to the presence of complex fracture micro-mechanisms in titanium alloys. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.