EVALUATION OF ELASTIC-PLASTIC FRACTURE IN ALUMINUM PANELS

An experimental and numerical study of failure in 6061-T6 aluminum pan els was completed, The experimental effort included generation of G(R) curves and collection of data from static fracture tests on thin alum inum panels with cracks and notches. The numerical effort centered on predicting the crack opening displacement as a function of applied loa d, predicting applied load at failure, and predicting the nature of fa ilure: either yield or fracture. A finite element model, referred to i n this paper as the damage zone model (DZM), incorporates a cohesive s tress zone adjacent to a crack or notch. The predicted failure loads u sing the DZM were within 9.0% of experimental values for yield failure . Predicted failure loads were within 11.0% of experimental failure lo ads when stable crack growth preceded unstable fracture. In all cases, the DZM predicted the nature of the final failure.