Effect of the quenching residual stress on ductile fracture behavior of pre-stretched aluminum alloy plates

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of quenching residual stress on the ductile fracture behavior of pre-stretched 7075 aluminum alloy plate. The GTN ductile fracture model is adopted for the failure analysis and implemented in the finite element package ABAQUS. Five cases of plates with different thicknesses are selected to study the effect of the quenching residual stress. By monitoring the average stress triaxialities at the surface and the central part of the plate, a new equation describing the relationship between the equivalent strains to fracture and the average stress triaxiality is proposed. Results show that the average stress triaxiality was strongly influenced by the quenching residual stress. The thicker the plate, the higher was the value of the average stress triaxiality at the central part of the plate and, as a result, the easier the crack occurs.