Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Volume 2013, Article ID 520127, 10 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/520127

Research Article
The Evaluation of Varying Ductile Fracture Criteria for
3Cr20Ni10W2 Austenitic Heat-Resistant Alloy

Yu-Feng Xia, Gui-Chang Luo, Dong-Sen Wu, Guo-Zheng Quan, and Jie Zhou
School of Material Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Yu-Feng Xia; xyfeng@cqu.edu.cn

Received 21 May 2013; Revised 14 July 2013; Accepted 15 July 2013

Academic Editor: Magd Abdel Wahab

Copyright 2013 Yu-Feng Xia et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Most bulk metal forming processes may be limited by ductile fracture, such as an internal or surface fracture developing in the
workpiece. Finding a way to evaluate the ductile fracture criteria (DFC) and identify the relationships between damage evolution
and strain-softening behavior of 3Cr20Ni10W2 heat-resistant alloy is very important, which, however, is a nontrivial issue that
still needs to be addressed in greater depth. Based on cumulative damage theory, an innovative approach involving heat physical
compression experiments, numerical simulations, and mathematical computations provides mutual support to evaluate ductile
damage cumulating process and DFC diagram along with deformation conditions. It is concluded that, as for strain-softening
material, ductile damage starts at work hardening phase, and the damage cumulation is more sensitive in work hardening phase
than in work softening phase. In addition, DFC of 3Cr20Ni10W2 heat-resistant alloy in a wide temperature range of 12031403 K
and the strain rate of 0.0110 s1 are not constant but change in a range of 0.0990.197; thus they have been defined as varying
ductile fracture criteria (VDFC) and characterized by a function of strain rate and temperature. According to VDFC diagram, the
exact fracture moment and position during various forming processes will be predicted conveniently.

1. Introduction forming process and the quality of the products. If it is pos-

3Cr20Ni10W2 is one of the representative austenitic heat-
resistant alloys. It is usually used for the material of exhaust
valves on diesel engine in the large marine industry due to
high strength, superior creep strength, excellent oxidation
resistance, excellent heat resistance, and high corrosion resis-
tance [1]. It is well known that the deformation behavior
for a specified material is sensitive to strain, strain rate,
and temperature. At a particular strain, under certain com-
binations of temperature and strain rate, the material may
exhibit poor workability, whereas at other combinations it
may show good workability. An important concern in the
plastic forming processes of heat-resistant alloy is whether the
desired deformation can be performed without any fracture
in workpiece. In industrial practice, however, the empirical
know-how of the designer is decisive for the fracture-free
quality of the products, but it usually requires very costly
trial-and-error [2]. Thus, there is a critical need for predicting
and preventing fracture, which is a major feature of the
sible to predict the conditions within the deformed workpiece
which lead to fracture, then it would allow early modification
of a production process and so reduces the risk of failure
occurring, with obviously saving time and cost [3, 4].
As a vital index of formability, the ductile damage in
plastic forming process can be described as a function of
local temperature, strain, and the stress state. The resulting
damage can be calculated, for example, with the model of
effective stresses, considering crack closure effects by splitting
the Cauchy stress tensor in a compressive and tensile part.
Therefore, the materials damage state in industrial processes
can be simulated by implementing damage models into
finite element software. Thus the damage degree, that is,
the fracture tendency, can be characterized as the ration of
damage value and ductile fracture criteria (DFC). So far,
the fracture criterion of Cockcroft-Latham has been applied
successfully to a variety of loading situations. It is suited
for ductile fracture in bulk metal-forming simulation [5].
Usually the critical damage value is considered as a constant
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

350
= 0.01 s1 450
= 0.1 s1
300 400
1203 K 1203 K
250 350
True stress (Mpa)

300

True stress (Mpa)

200
250 1253 K
150 1253 K
200
1303 K 1303 K
150
100 1353K
1353K 100
50 1403K
1403K 50
0 0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
True strain True strain
(a) (b)
600
= 1 s1 700 = 10 s1
1203 K
500
1203 K 600

400 500
True stress (Mpa)

True stress (Mpa)

1253 K
1253 K 400
300 1303 K
1303 K 300 1353K
200 1353K
200
1403K
100 1403K
100

0 0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
True strain True strain
(c) (d)

Figure 1: True stress-strain curves of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy at different strain rates and temperatures (a) 0.01 s1 , 12031403 K; (b) 0.1 s1 ,
12031403 K; (c) 1 s1 , 12031403 K; and (d) 10 s1 , 12031403 K.

of materials like yield stress and stress limit, though it is
affected by the working condition. Cockcroft and Latham
[29] have not expounded whether the critical damage value
depends on the temperature and strain rate.
The main purpose of the present work is to analyze and
uncover the nature relationships between damage evolution
and deforming parameters of 3Cr20Ni10W2 heat-resistant
alloy and furthermore to construct ductile fracture criteria
histogram along with deforming parameters. An innovative
concept of damage sensitive rate is brought forth as the
essential intermediate quantity to determine ductile fracture
criteria. As for the innovative approach, heat physical com-
pression simulations, numerical simulations, and mathemat-
ical computations are necessary, which induces that physical
experiments and numerical computations provide mutual
support to determine the varying ductile fracture criteria
(VDFC). Without a doubt, VDFC of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy
make it possible to predict the exact fracture moment and
position during various forming processes. That is to say, the
VDFC obtained in this work can help technicians to choose
suitable process parameters and avoid the occurrence of frac-
ture. It is very significant to guide the practical production.
2. Materials and Experimental Procedure
The 3Cr20Ni10W2 austenitic heat-resistant alloy employed in
the present investigation is provided in the form of bar with
the diameter of 100 mm. Its chemical compositions (wt. %)
are as follows: C 0.25, Si 1, Cr 20, Ni 10, Mn 1, W 2, and Fe
(balance). Before the experiment, the homogenized ingot was
scalped to diameter 10 mm and height 12 mm with grooves
on both sides filled with machine oil mingled with graphite
powder as lubrication to reduce friction between the anvils
and specimen during hot compression tests. The specimens
were resistant heated to a certain temperature at a heating
rate of 1 K/s by a computer-controlled, servohydraulic Gleeble
1500 machine, and held at a certain temperature for 180 s
by thermocoupled-feedback-controlled AC current to ensure
a uniform starting temperature and decrease the material
anisotropy. All the twenty specimens were compressed to
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 3

(a) (b)

Crack

(c) (d)

(e)

Figure 2: The specimen (a) as-received, (b) with a height reduction of 60% at temperature of 1253 K and strain rate of 10 s1 , (c) with a height
reduction of 80% at temperature of 1253 K and strain rate of 10 s1 (d) a height reduction of 60% at temperature of 1203 K and strain rate of
0.1 s1 , (e) and a height reduction of 60% at temperature of 1353 K and strain rate of 0.1 s1 .

a fixed true strain of 0.9163 (height reduction 60%) at the
temperatures of 1203 K, 1253 K, 1303 K, 1353 K, and 1403 K and
the strain rates of 0.01 s1 , 0.1 s1 , 1 s1 , and 10 s1 . During the
compressing processes the variations of stress and strain were
monitored continuously by a personal computer equipped
with an automatic data acquisition system. In the tests, the
temperatures of the specimens were controlled to within
0.1 K through three thermocouples adhibited affixed to the
specimens.
The true stress-strain relationships were derived from
the nominal stress-strain curves collected according to the
following formula: = (1 + ), = ln(1 + ), where
is the true stress, the nominal stress, the true strain,
and the nominal strain.
3. Flow Stress Behavior and
Experiment Results
The true compressive stress-strain curves of 3Cr20Ni10W2
heat-resistant alloy are illustrated in Figures 1(a)1(d), which
show that both deformation temperature and strain rate have
considerable influence on the flow stress of 3Cr20Ni10W2
alloy. Comparing these curves with one another, it is found
that, for all of specimens after initial yielding, the flow stress
decreases monotonically with different softening rates. For a
specific strain rate, the flow stress decreases markedly with
the increase in temperature. In contrast, for a specific tem-
perature, the flow stress generally increases with the increase
of strain rate due to an increase of dislocation density and
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
(a)
Figure 3: The cross-sectional microstructure of 3Cr2Ni10W2 alloy (a) with a height reduction of 60% under temperature of 1203 K and strain
rate of 10 s1 (b) and a height reduction of 80% under temperature of 1253 K and strain rate of 10 s1 .
n
n SDx
RVE
S
In M
Figure 4: Damaged RVE in a damaged body.
the dislocation multiplication rate. Moreover, the true stress
strain curves in Figure 1 show that increasing strain rate or
decreasing deformation temperature makes the flow stress
level increase; in other words, it prevents the occurrence
of softening due to DRX and dynamic recovery (DRV)
and makes the deformed metals exhibit work hardening
(WH). The cause lies in the fact that higher strain rate
and lower temperature provide shorter time for the energy
accumulation and lower mobilities at boundaries which result
in the nucleation and growth of dynamically recrystallized
grains and dislocation annihilation [1012].
From the true stress-strain curves in Figures 1(a)1(d), it
can be seen that the stress evolution with strain exhibits three
distinct stages [13]. At the first stage while work hardening
(WH) predominates and causes dislocations to polygonize
into stable subgrains, flow stress exhibits a rapid increase to a
critical value with increasing strain; meanwhile the stored
energy in the grain boundaries originates from a large dif-
ference in dislocation density within subgrains or grains and
grows rapidly to dynamic recrystallization (DRX) activation
energy. When the critical driving force is attained, new grains
are nucleated along the grain boundaries, deformation bands,
and dislocations, resulting in equiaxed DRX grains. At the
second stage, flow stress exhibits smaller and smaller increase
until a peak value or an inflection of work hardening rate
(b)
Top die
Workpiece
Axis of symmetry
Bottom die
Figure 5: The basic model of compression testing in DEFORM-2D.
is reached, which shows that the thermal softening due to
DRX and dynamic recovery (DRV) becomes more and more
predominant, and then it exceeds WH. At the third stage,
two types of curve variation tendency can be generalized
as follows: decreasing gradually to a steady state with DRV
softening (13031403 K & 0.01 s1 , 13531403 K & 0.1 s1 , and
1403 K & 1 s1 ) and decreasing continuously with signifi-
cant DRX softening (12031253 K & 0.01 s1 , 12031303 K
& 0.1 s1 , 12031353 K & 1 s1 , and 12031403 K & 10 s1 ).
Thus, it can be concluded that the typical form of flow curve
with DRX softening, including a single peak followed by a
steady-state flow as a plateau, is more recognizable at high
temperatures and low strain rates. The cause lies in the fact
that at higher strain rates and lower temperatures the higher
work hardening rate slows down the rate of DRX softening,
and both the peak stress and the onset of steady-state flow are
therefore shifted to higher strain levels [14, 15].
Advances in Mechanical Engineering
A = 0.000
B = 0.0261
C = 0.0521
D = 0.0782
E = 0.104
F = 0.130 B
G = 0.156
H = 0.182
I = 0.209
HGF E DC B Min
B
Min 0.000
Max 0.209
Figure 6: The damage distribution of the height reduction 60% under temperature of 1253 K and strain rate of 0.01 s1 .
The results of heat physical compression experiments
are shown in Figure 2. Figure 2(a) shows the specimen
as-received; Figure 2(b) shows the deformed specimen with
a height reduction of 60% at temperature of 1253 K and strain
rate of 10 s1 , on which no visible crack appears; Figure 2(c)
shows the deformed specimen with a height reduction of
80% at temperature of 1253 K and strain rate of 10 s1 , on
which visible cracks appear; Figure 2(d) shows the deformed
specimen with a height reduction of 60% at temperature of
1203 K and strain rate of 0.1 s1 , on which no visible crack
appears; Figure 2(e) shows the deformed specimen with a
height reduction of 60% at temperature of 1353 K and strain
rate of 0.1 s1 , on which cracks appear.
The microstructures on the section plane of specimen
were examined and analyzed under the optical microscope,
as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3(a) shows the microstructure
on the cross section of the deformed specimen with a height
reduction of 60% under temperature of 1203 K and strain rate
of 10 s1 . It can be seen that the deformed metal partially
transforms to a microstructure of approximately equiaxed
defect-free grains which are predominantly bounded by
high angle boundaries (i.e., a recrystallized microstructure)
by relatively localized boundary migration, and the grain
boundaries of the rest of untransformed metal reveal an uni-
form vector in radial direction due to weak recovery for grain
boundary torsion. Across the recrystallized microstructure,
no crack can be found. Figure 3(b) shows the microstruc-
ture on the cross section of the deformed specimen with
a height reduction of 80% under temperature of 1253 K
and strain rate of 10 s1 . By comparison with Figure 3(a),
it can be seen that more deformed metal transforms to
recrystallized microstructure due to higher mobility of grain
boundaries (growth kinetics), and all the grains tend to
be more homogeneous due to stronger adaptivity for grain
boundary migration. However, microcracks appear in the
middle region of the section, which shows that the visible
cracks on the upsetting drum have extended from the surface
to the center. According to elastic-plastic mechanics theory,
in an upsetting process, the maximum stress appears on the
upsetting drum, while minimum stress appears in the middle
5
Damage
0.209
0.139
Max
0.0695
0.000
region. Therefore, macrocracks appear on the upsetting drum
firstly and then extend to the internal.
4. Basis for Damage Computation
4.1. Cockcroft-Lathams DFC. Generally, workability depends
on the local conditions of stress, strain, strain rate, and
temperature in combination with material factors, such as the
resistance of a metal to failure. Failure in bulk metal forming
usually occurs as ductile fracture, rarely as brittle fracture.
Therefore, a ductile fracture criterion is very important and
necessary for designing an optimum plastic forming process
without failure. According to various hypotheses, many
criteria for ductile fracture have been proposed empirically
as well as theoretically. Cockcroft and Latham [9, 1619],
based on cumulative damage theory, developed a damage
computation module based on a critical value of the tensile
strain energy per unit volume, which has been widely applied
in the field of bulk forming with high reliability. Therefore, the
damage module of Cockcroft-Latham is convenient for both
experimental and numerical approaches is used in the present
investigation to estimate if and where surface fracture occurs
during the deformation process. Cockcroft-Lathams damage
[9, 16, 17] can be expressed as an amount of work that the ratio
of maximum tensile stress to effective stress carries out
through the applied equivalent strain in a metal-working
process; that is,
= d, (1)
0
where is the total equivalent strain corresponding to
fracture failure; the damage module is not based on a
micromechanical model to fracture but simply recognizes the
dependence of the critical at fracture upon the level of the
largest principal stress. In (1), the maximum damage value,
max , is named ductile fracture criteria (DFC), that is, the
critical damage value of the workpiece. The DFC value, max ,
is dependent on the material metallurgical properties such
as grain form, grain size, and nonmetallic inclusion content.
The magnitude of cannot exceed max to failure; when the
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

0.30 0.20

0.25
0.16

Maximum damage
Maximum damage

0.20
0.12
0.15
0.08
0.10

0.04
0.05

0.00 0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
True strain True strain
1203 K 1353 K 1203 K 1353 K
1253 K 1403 K 1253 K 1403 K
1303 K 1303 K
(a) (b)
0.20
0.14

0.16 0.12
Maximum damage

Maximum damage

0.10
0.12
0.08

0.08 0.06

0.04
0.04
0.02

0.00 0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
True strain True strain

1203 K 1353 K 1203 K 1353 K

1253 K 1403 K 1253 K 1403 K
1303 K 1303 K
(c) (d)

Figure 7: The maximum damage varying during compressing process at different temperatures and strain rates (a) 0.01 s1 , 12031403 K; (b)
0.1 s1 , 12031403 K; (c) 1 s1 , 12031403 K; and (d) 10 s1 , 12031403 K.

damage value of (1) reaches max , fracture will occur. For this time corresponding to fracture failure, and is the variable
reason, by comparing with max , the risk of material failure time increment used in the FE analysis.
during processing can be assessed.
In order to calculate by FE simulation, (1) has to be 4.2. Approach to Determine Cockcroft-Latham-Type DFC.
converted to an appropriate discrete expression that is con- From Figure 1, it can be seen that 3Cr20Ni10W2 heat-
venient for FE code: resistant alloy is a typical strain-softening alloy. As is well
known, for strain-hardening alloy the fracture criteria can


d

be determined by directly comparing the simulation with the
= d = d , (2) destructive experiments in terms of the critical deformation
0 d 0 0
level. However, for strain-softening alloy the ductile fracture
criteria can not be determined directly because it is difficult to
where is the equivalent strain rate as (1) calculated from find visible cracks on the surface of deformed billet and the
the individual principle strain-rate components, is the total stress-strain curveshave not apparent fracture points. Thus,
Advances in Mechanical Engineering
0.26
0.24
0.22
Maximum damage
0.20
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.5
1 )
Lg (s
1203 K 1353 K
1253 K 1403 K
1303 K
Figure 8: The relationships between maximum damage and strain
rates at the end of compressing process.
it is necessary to find an indirect way to evaluate the ductile
fracture criteria. An innovative indirect (nondestructive)
method to evaluate DFC has been brought forward in this
research. A basic research approach in which physical exper-
iments and numerical simulation provide mutual support
for the critical damage factor was established. As several
series of billet samples had been compressed on a heat
physical simulation machine under different deformation
temperatures and strain rates, the true stress-strain data
collected resulted in the performance of simulations through
an integration method using the subroutine in the DEFORM-
2D platform.
According to cumulative damage theory, the damage
value a moment ago is less than that a moment later during
a compressing process. Therefore the maximum value seems
to appear at the last simulation step, but it does not mean
fracture step. As the cumulation characters maybe contribute
to find the critical damage value, it is necessary to analyze
the damage cumulating process. Thus, an innovative concept
about the sensitive rate of Cockcroft-Latham damage (as (3))
in plastic deformation (step ) is brought out and defined as
the ratio of the damage increment at one step () to the
accumulated value (acc ). It is supposed that if the maximum
damage value will keep increasing in a very small growth rate
near to zero, it means that fractures have appeared [9]. Thus,
the fracture time, that is, fracture strain or fracture height
reduction, will be identified and determined:
step = . (3)
acc
The emergence of the assumptions above responds
to Kachanovs [2022] explanation of damage. Kachanov
explained the one-dimensional surface damage variable by
considering a damaged body and a representative volume
element (RVE) at a point oriented by a plane defined by its
7
normal and its abscissa along the direction (as shown in
Figure 4) [20]. The value of the damage (, , ) attached
to the point in the direction and the abscissa is
(, , ) = ,
(4)
where is the area of intersection of all the flaws with the
plane defined by the normal and abscissa and is the total
area at the intersection plane.
In (3), damage is bounded as 0 , where
is a critical damage value corresponding to the decohesion of
atoms in a representative volume element, = 0 represents
the undamaged RVE material, and = represents the
1.0 rupture failure in the remaining resisting area. As rupture
failure has occurred, damage will keep increasing in a
growth rate near to zero or equal to zero with increasing
deformation strain. It means that the damage will not be
sensitive to deformation.
5. Computation Results
5.1. Cumulating Process of Ductile Damage. Rigid-plastic FE
models were established in the DEFORM-2D platform to
simulate the above corresponding upsetting tests. The basic
model to represent compression testing method is shown
in Figure 5. Because of symmetry, in order to simplify and
reduce the running time during the simulation, only one-half
of the geometry is considered. The specimen was modeled as
a plastic object; the tools were modeled as rigid surfaces. The
initial mesh of billet consists of 800 four node elements; due
to both sides of the cylinder workpiece filled with machine oil
mingled with graphite powder as lubrication, the frictional
between the specimen and the tools is assumed to be 0.1. For
the simulation of plastic deformation process, the material
model for billet can be defined by inputting the true stress-
strain curve date (as Figure 1). And then the damage value
during the deformation process was calculated. Figure 6
shows the damage distribution of the height reduction of 60%
under temperature of 1253 K and strain rate of 0.01 s1 . From
the simulation results of all the isothermal hot compression
tests at the temperatures of 1203 K, 1253 K, 1303 K, 1353 K, and
1403 K and the strain rates of 0.01 s1 , 0.1 s1 , 1 s1 , and 10 s1 ,
it can be seen clearly that the maximum damage value always
appears in the region of upsetting drum corresponding to
higher strain, stress, and strain rate, while the minimal
value appears in the middle region. As the results shown in
Figure 6, the most severely damaged material is located in the
upsetting drum, with the damage extent decreasing sharply in
diameter from outside to inside.
Based on the simulation results, the maximum damage of
workpiece during the whole upsetting processes at different
temperatures and strain rates was evaluated and shown in
Figures 7(a)7(d). It can be seen that the damage increases
nonlinearly as the compressive true strain increases from 0
to about 0.4, and then it increases nearly linearly. Comparing
these curves with one another, it is found that as the strain
rate is 1 s1 , for a fixed true strain, the maximum cumulated
damage decreases with increasing temperature, while there is
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

0.9 0.55

0.8 0.50
0.45
0.7

Damage sensitive rate

0.40
Damage sensitive rate

0.6
0.35
0.5 0.30
0.4 0.25

0.3 0.20
0.15
0.2
0.10
0.1
0.05
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
True strain True strain

1203 K 1353 K 1203 K 1353 K

1253 K 1403 K 1253 K 1403 K
1303 K 1303 K
(a) (b)
0.55 0.55
0.50 0.50
0.45 0.45
Damage sensitive rate

0.40
Damage sensitive rate

0.40
0.35 0.35
0.30 0.30
0.25 0.25
0.20 0.20
0.15 0.15
0.10 0.10
0.05 0.05
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
True strain True strain

1203 K 1353 K 1203 K 1353 K

1253 K 1403 K 1253 K 1403 K
1303 K 1303 K
(c) (d)

Figure 9: The variation of damage sensitive rate under different temperatures and strain rates (a) 0.01 s1 , 12031403 K; (b) 0.1 s1 , 12031403 K;
(c) 1 s1 , 12031403 K; and (d) 10 s1 , 12031403 K.

no obvious regularity for the strain rates of 0.01 s1 , 0.1 s1 , Cockcroft-Latham damage (as (3)) in plastic deformation
and 10 s1 . In contrast, for a fixed temperature, at first, the (step ) at different temperatures and strain rates were
maximum cumulated damage decreases rapidly and then calculated and shown in Figures 9(a)9(d). It can be seen
slightly increases; finally, the damage value decreased again that, for all the deformation conditions, step decreases to the
(as shown in Figure 8). Further, it can be summarized that trough point rapidly before true strain 0.10.15, and then it
the changes in strain rate have a more significant effect on the slightly increases in true strain 0.150.2, soon after which it
cumulated damage. decreases to zero by slow degrees in true strain range 0.2
0.92. In this study, the zero point has a tolerance of 00.03,
5.2. Evaluation of Varying Ductile Fracture Criteria (VDFC). and it is assumed as the fracture time in tolerance limits. That
In order to evaluate the ductile fracture criteria, the fracture is to say, when step decreases to 0.03, it means that fractures
occurrence and the damage value at fracture time are nec- have appeared. To find the fracture time, the point arrays after
essary to be made certain. Based on the damage cumulating true strain 0.6 are picked out from each incremental ratio
processes as shown in Figure 7, the sensitive rates of varying curve and fitted linearly. The intersection of line fitted
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 9

1400
0.11
0.12
1365
0.16
0.13
0.14
Temperature (K)

1330 0.2 0.2

0.12 0.11 0.19 0.19
0.11 0.18 0.18
0.17 0.17
1295 0.16 0.16

DFC

DFC
0.15 0.15
0.14 0.14
0.12 0.13 0.13
1260 0.12 0.12
0.13
0.13 0.11 0.11
0.14 0.1 0.1
1225 0.17 0.09 0.09
0.16 0.14 0.16
0.18
50

1
14 50

.5
2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 12 le

0
00 s ca
Tem 14

.5
1 00 g

Lg (s ) nL

0.5
per
atu 13 50 ei
rat

1
re ( 13
K) ain
Str
(a) (b)

Figure 10: The temperature and strain rate effect on the ductile fracture criteria of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy: (a) contour plot and (b) response
surface.

Table 1: An approximate analytical formula for the VDFC of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy.

VDFC Exponents Remarks

= 3816.7446
= 68.729828
= 1579.797
= 0.059114997
= 217.96749
= + + ln + 2 + (ln)2 + ln + 3 + (ln)3 + (ln)2 + 2 ln Error = 0.0064441403
= 19.188862
= 0.013456596
= 10.024214
= 1.3390056
= 0.0066272407

and horizontal axis is obtained, and it is made certain as the
fracture step.
As the fracture time has been determined, and then based
on Figure 7, the fracture analysis step and the correspondent
DFC under different deformation conditions can be evalu-
ated. The contour plot and response surface of DFC in Figures
10(a)-10(b) indicate the nature influence of temperature and
strain rate on DFC of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy. Figures 10(a)-
10(b) show that DFC of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy are not constant
but change in a range of 0.0990.197, and thus they can
be defined as varying ductile fracture criteria (VDFC) and
described as a function of strain rate and temperature (as
in Table 1). In the scatter diagram, there is a valley under
the deformation conditions 12731353 K & 0.0320.316 s1 ,
on both sides of which DFC value increases. What is worth
explaining is that the forming process will be worse under
these conditions due to lower DFC, in addition to which, the
deformation domains (12031253 K & 0.010.016 s1 , 1403
1453 K & 0.010.016 s1 , and 12031228 K & 0.1781.29 s1 )
with lower fracture risk corresponding to higher VDFC
have been identified. Therefore, in bulk forming operations
of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy, it should choose these deformation
conditions to reduce fracture risk.
Comparing Figures 2 and 10, it is clear that the predict
results of FEA corresponding to the experiment results. The
crack initialization takes place at the edge of the workpiece
due to the maximum damage value. Besides, the fracture time
predicted based on the VDFC conforms to the experimental
results.
6. Conclusion
An innovative approach involving heat physical compression
experiments, numerical simulations, and mathematical com-
putations was brought forth to evaluate the ductile damage
cumulating process and DFC diagram along with various
deformation conditions for 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy. The main
conclusions can be summarized as follows.
(1) As for 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy, a typical strain-softening
material, ductile damage starts at work hardening
phase, and the damage cumulation is more sensitive
10
in work hardening phase than in work softening
phase. Besides, the maximum damage value appears
in the region of upsetting drum, while the minimal
value in the middle region.
(2) DFC of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy in the temperature range
of 12031403 K and strain rate range of 0.0110 s1
are not constant but change with a range of 0.099
0.197, and thus they have been defined as varying
ductile fracture criteria (VDFC) and characterized by
a function of strain rate and temperature.
(3) According to VDFC diagram, the exact fracture
moment and position during various forming pro-
cesses can be predicted conveniently and effectively,
in addition to which, the deformation domains with
lower fracture risk of 3Cr20Ni10W2 alloy have been
identified as 12031253 K & 0.010.016 s1 , 1403
1453 K & 0.010.016 s1 , and 12031228 K & 0.178
1.29 s1 .
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities (CDJZR12130045).
References
[1] W.-Y. Li, M. Yu, J. Li, G. Zhang, and S. Wang, Characterizations
of 21-4N to 4Cr9Si2 stainless steel dissimilar joint bonded
by electric-resistance-heat-aided friction welding, Materials &
Design, vol. 30, no. 10, pp. 42304235, 2009.
[2] D. J. Kim and B. M. Kim, Prediction of deformed configuration
and ductile fracture for simple upsetting using an artificial
neural network, The International Journal of Advanced Manu-
facturing Technology, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 336342, 2002.
[3] D.-C. Ko and B.-M. Kim, Prediction of central burst defects
in extrusion and wire drawing, Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, vol. 102, no. 13, pp. 1924, 2000.
[4] S. V. S. N. Murty, B. N. Rao, and B. P. Kashyap, Improved ductile
fracture criterion for cold forming of spheroidised steel, Journal
of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 147, no. 1, pp. 94101,
2004.
[5] X. Q. Zhang, Y. H. Peng, and X. Y. Ruan, Simulation and
fracture prediction for sintered materials in upsetting by FEM,
Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 105, no. 3, pp.
253257, 2000.
[6] H. Arabshahi, Dynamic and static softening behaviors of
AA2024 aluminum alloy under hot deformation applications,
International Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences, vol. 9, no. 9,
pp. 2123, 2009.
[7] B. P. P. A. Gouveia, J. M. C. Rodrigues, and P. A. F. Martins,
Ductile fracture in metalworking: experimental and theoreti-
cal research, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 101,
no. 13, pp. 5263, 2000.
[8] H. Liu, Y. Yang, Z. Yu, Z. Sun, and Y. Wang, The application of
a ductile fracture criterion to the prediction of the forming limit
of sheet metals, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol.
209, no. 14, pp. 54435447, 2009.
[9] Y.-F. Xia, G.-Z. Quan, and J. Zhou, Effects of temperature
and strain rate on critical damage value of AZ80 magnesium
Advances in Mechanical Engineering
alloy, Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, vol.
20, supplement 2, pp. s580s583, 2010.
[10] A. Momeni, K. Dehghani, H. Keshmiri, and G. R. Ebrahimi,
Hot deformation behavior and microstructural evolution of a
superaustenitic stainless steel, Materials Science and Engineer-
ing A, vol. 527, no. 6, pp. 16051611, 2010.
[11] Y. C. Lin, M.-S. Chen, and J. Zhong, Constitutive modeling for
elevated temperature flow behavior of 42CrMo steel, Compu-
tational Materials Science, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 470477, 2008.
[12] G.-Z. Quan, G.-S. Li, T. Chen, Y.-X. Wang, Y.-W. Zhang, and
J. Zhou, Dynamic recrystallization kinetics of 42CrMo steel
during compression at different temperatures and strain rates,
Materials Science and Engineering A, vol. 528, no. 13-14, pp.
46434651, 2011.
[13] Z. Yang, Y. C. Guo, J. P. Li, F. He, F. Xia, and M. X. Liang, Plastic
deformation and dynamic recrystallization behaviors of Mg-
5Gd-4Y-0.5Zn-0.5Zr alloy, Materials Science and Engineering
A, vol. 485, no. 1-2, pp. 487491, 2008.
[14] R. Ding and Z. X. Guo, Coupled quantitative simulation of
microstructural evolution and plastic flow during dynamic
recrystallization, Acta Materialia, vol. 49, no. 16, pp. 31633175,
2001.
[15] Y. C. Lin and X.-M. Chen, A critical review of experimental
results and constitutive descriptions for metals and alloys in hot
working, Materials and Design, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 17331759,
2011.
[16] D. Dumont, A. Deschamps, and Y. Brechet, A model for pre-
dicting fracture mode and toughness in 7000 series aluminium
alloys, Acta Materialia, vol. 52, no. 9, pp. 25292540, 2004.
[17] M. G. Cockcroft and D. J. Latham, Ductility and workability
of materials, The Journal of the Institute of Metals, vol. 96, pp.
3339, 1968.
[18] M. J. Ward, B. C. Miller, and K. Davey, Simulation of a
multi-stage railway wheel and tyre forming process, Journal of
Materials Processing Technology, vol. 80-81, no. 3, pp. 206212,
1998.
[19] W. F. Fan and J. H. Li, An investigation on the damage of
AISI-1045 and AISI-1025 steels in fine-blanking with negative
clearance, Materials Science and Engineering A, vol. 499, no. 1-
2, pp. 248251, 2009.
[20] D. Krajcinovic, Damage mechanics, Mechanics of Materials,
vol. 8, no. 2-3, pp. 117197, 1989.
[21] N. Bonora, D. Gentile, and A. Pirondi, Identification of the
parameters of a non-linear continuum damage mechanics
model for ductile failure in metals, Journal of Strain Analysis
for Engineering Design, vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 639651, 2004.
[22] N. Bonora, D. Gentile, A. Pirondi, and G. Newaz, Ductile
damage evolution under triaxial state of stress: theory and
experiments, International Journal of Plasticity, vol. 21, no. 5,
pp. 9811007, 2005.