Combined macroscopic and microscopic approach to the fracture of metals. Technical progress report, July 1975--June 1976

Major studies have been started on (1) The conditions governing the localization of plastic flow at the onset of rupture. Specific calculations of critical conditions for a number of material models have been made possible through a theoretical framework by which localization is formulated as a constitutive instability, in the form of a bifurcation into a localized mode from a state of previously homogeneous deformation, and (2) The strength of interfaces with and without the presence of dissolved segregants. Criteria for brittle vs. ductile response of an interface were developed on the basis of dislocation mechanisms and thermodynamic relations, and applied to hydrogen embrittlement. Further progress has been achieved in the analysis of stress and deformation at a crack tip by the application of the large-strain elastic-plastic finite element program developed over the last two years. Work has continued on particle and sub-boundary strengthening in steels and an experimental study of fracture initiation at particles was begun.