Calibration of the Ductile Failure Criterion for Nickel-Based Superalloys taking into Account the Localization of the Strain

Static tension test allows characterization of material strength properties. This simple test provides input data for numerical calculation of structural components made of the tested alloy. Elastic, plastic and failure behavior of the structural component in question is simulated, using, for example, the FEM package, based on parameters obtained as the result of tensile testing. When using the results of the tensile test for modeling the material failure it is important to estimate correctly plastic strain corresponding to failure. It is common practice to use elongation of the specimen gage part for the calculation of failure strain. On the other side, the most popular ductile failure criterion used by engineers performing numerical simulation of the material’s behavior relies on the equivalent plastic strain as the criterial quantity. Those two parameters can differ significantly. In order to calculate the equivalent plastic strain correctly, we have to remember about strain localization (necking) appearing during tensile tests and take into account the fact that during tensile testing we have three non-zero strain tensor components. Ignoring this fact, and using only elongation as the criterial quantity can lead to enormous simulation error. This error is analyzed in this paper for nickel based superalloy tested at elevated temperatures.