Ductile fracture simulation of 304 stainless steel pipes with two circumferential surface cracks

In this paper, ductile fracture behaviours of 304 stainless steel pipes with two circumferential surface cracks under pure bending are simulated using finite element damage analyses. Simulations are based on the stress-modified fracture strain model with the concept that the critical accumulated damage for progressive cracking is assumed to be dependent on an element size. The proposed method can predict not only maximum loads but also complex ductile fracture patterns observed in experiments.