Fracture modelling of a high performance armour steel

Abstract
The fracture characteristics of the high performance armour steel Armox 500T is investigated. Tensile mechanical experiments using samples with different notch geometries are used to investigate the effect of multi-axial stress states on the strain to fracture. The experiments are numerically simulated and from the simulation the stress at the point of fracture initiation is determined as a function of strain and these data are then used to extract parameters for fracture models. A fracture model based on quasi-static experiments is suggested and the model is tested against independent experiments done at both static and dynamic loading. The result show that the fracture model give reasonable good agreement between simulations and experiments at both static and dynamic loading condition. This indicates that multi-axial loading is more important to the strain to fracture than the deformation rate in the investigated loading range. However on-going work will further characterise the fracture behaviour of Armox 500T.