Progressive failure of ductile metals: Description via a three-dimensional coupled CZM–XFEM based approach

The present work pertains to the numerical prediction of current residual strength large metallic engineering structures when submitted accidental overloads. In this context, is developed a unified 3D methodology reproducing successive stages progressive failure made ductile metals, viz. (i) more or less diffuse micro-voiding induced damage, (ii) strain/damage localization in narrow band, and (iii) macro-crack formation propagation. This notably realized via combination GTN model an XFEM/CZM coupling. Localization addressed here as phenomenon driven either by plastic instability void coalescence. latter case original transition criterion proposed, accounting for competition between Mode I/II type localization, utilizing local triaxiality mode indicator. implemented user element subroutine (UEL) within commercial finite computation code ABAQUS its performance assessed considering simulations various loading cases. proposed shown be mesh objective able fairly reproduce crack patterns, while it gives promising results regarding global specimen responses.