The mechanistic origins of heterogeneous void growth during ductile failure

In 1969, Rice and Tracey proposed that the rate of void growth during ductile failure is a strong function of the hydrostatic stress state. Numerous in-situ x-ray computed tomography (XCT) studies demonstrated that the average rate of void growth is well-predicted by modified versions of the Rice-Tracey equation. However, recent in-situ XCT studies of void growth demonstrated that individual voids grow in highly heterogeneous manners in a way that is not predicted by Rice-Tracey or similar models. Model-based studies using crystal plasticity finite element (CP-FE) suggest that local effects of grain orientation play a strong role during void growth, but we lack experimental data to test this hypothesis. The present study leverages recent advances in laboratory-based diffraction contrast tomography (Lab-DCT) and in-situ XCT to systematically examine the effects of grain orientation on void growth experimentally in an Al-2219 alloy. CP-FE modeling was used to assess the local stress states associated with voids and their influence on void growth rates. These data indicate that void growth is not simply controlled by the local hydrostatic stress or stress triaxiality. Additionally, no clear relationship between void growth rates and grain orientation were observed. Instead, void growth rates were highly stochastic in ways that could not be directly linked to the local stress or strain states. The combination of experimental and modeling data suggests that our current assumptions regarding the mechanisms of void growth are flawed and that additional factors, which may include the local dislocation density, affect the rate of void growth.