Derivation of separation laws for cohesive models in the course of ductile fracture

The paper addresses the determination of the traction-separation law of the cohesive model on a micromechanical basis. For this task, a specific failure mechanism, i.e. ductile damage consisting of void nucleation, growth and coalescence, is investigated. An approach already described in the literature is to transfer the deformation behaviour of the simplest representative volume element, i.e. a single voided unit cell, to the cohesive interface. After reviewing the existing approach, its main drawback, namely that the unit cell contains both, deformation and damage of a material point whereas the cohesive model should contain the material separation only, is addressed. A new approach is presented, in which the behaviour of a unit cell is partitioned in its elasto-plastic deformation and damage, and only the damage contribution is applied as the traction-separation law for the cohesive model. instead of modelling the voided unit cell, a single element with Gurson type plastic potential for the damage has been employed as a reference for the behaviour at the microscale. A study with fracture specimens, C(T) and M(T), made of an engineering Aluminium alloy shows that the new approach exhibits a better transferability than the existing one. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.