DEVELOPMENT OF A SIMPLIFIED APPROACH FOR USING THE LOCAL APPROACH TO FRACTURE

Today there is a strong demand from different industries to use local fracture criteria in a simplified way. This paper presents the main re sults of a two years joint research project where CEA, EDF, School of Mines and IRSID were associated. A simplified method based on the Bere min models for cleavage and ductile fracture has been developed. This procedure can be used to evaluate the risk of fracture of industrial s tructures or to allow a rapid development of new materials. Finite ele ment simulations were systematically performed for axisymmetrically no tched tensile and precracked specimens using a parametric description of stress-strain laws. Results were presented in the form of graphs th at can be used directly for measuring local fracture parameters from t ests on axisymmetrically notched specimens and to predict fracture tou ghness. An additional parameter measuring the level of plastic constra int has been taken into account. This parameter can be easily evaluate d on industrial structures. This allows a simple way of using local cr iteria to evaluate the safety of such structures.