G. T. Hahn

Bio: G. T. Hahn is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Fracture mechanics & Grain boundary strengthening. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 216 citations.

Material Failure by Void Growth to Coalescence

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter describes the material failure by coalescence of microscopic voids. The voids nucleate mainly at second phase particles, by decohesion of the particle-matrix interface or by particle fracture, and subsequently the voids grow because of plastic straining of the surrounding material. The growth of voids to coalescence by plastic yielding of the surrounding material involves so large geometry changes that finite strain formulations of the field equations are a necessary tool. A convected coordinate formulation of the governing equations is used. Convected coordinates are introduced, which serve as particle labels. The convected coordinate net can be visualized as being inscribed on the body in the reference state and deforming with the material. It is found that after nucleation, cavities elongate along the major tensile axis and that two neighboring cavities coalesce when their length has grown to the order of magnitude of their spacing. This local failure occurs by the development of slip planes between the cavities or simply necking of the ligament. A detailed micromechanical study of shear band bifurcation that accounts for the interaction between neighboring voids and the strongly nonhomogeneous stress distributions around each void has been carried out, and are also elaborated in this chapter.

From brittle to ductile fracture of bone

Abstract: Toughness is crucial to the structural function of bone. Usually, the toughness of a material is not just determined by its composition, but by the ability of its microstructure to dissipate deformation energy without propagation of the crack. Polymers are often able to dissipate energy by viscoplastic flow or the formation of non-connected microcracks. In ceramics, well-known toughening mechanisms are based on crack ligament bridging and crack deflection. Interestingly, all these phenomena were identified in bone, which is a composite of a fibrous polymer (collagen) and ceramic nanoparticles (carbonated hydroxyapatite). Here, we use controlled crack-extension experiments to explain the influence of fibre orientation on steering the various toughening mechanisms. We find that the fracture energy changes by two orders of magnitude depending on the collagen orientation, and the angle between collagen and crack propagation direction is decisive in switching between different toughening mechanisms.

Recent progress in understanding reactor pressure vessel steel embrittlement

Abstract: This paper reviews the current understanding of the basic mechanisms of irradiation embrittlement in reactor pressure vessel steels. Radiation enhanced diffusiona at operating temperatures around 290°C leads to the formation of various ultrafine scale hardening phases, including copper rich and copper catalysed manganese-nickel rich precipitates. Other nanofeatures that do not require copper, so-called matrix defects, include alloy phosphides and carbonitrides as well as defect cluster-solute complexes. Matrix defects that are thermally unstable (anneal) under irradiation play a very important role in mediating flux and temperature effects. The balance of features depends on the composition of the steel and the irradiation conditions. Copper enriched phases, which are the dominant embrittling feature in alloys containing significant trace quantities of this element, are fairly well understood. In contrast, the detailed identity and etiology of the matrix defects and manganese-nickel rich phases t...

Mechanisms and modeling of cleavage fracture in simulated heat-affected zone microstructures of a high-strength low alloy steel

Abstract: The effect of the welding cycle on the fracture toughness properties of high-strength low alloy (HSLA) steels is examined by means of thermal simulation of heat-affected zone (HAZ) microstructures. Tensile tests on notched bars and fracture toughness tests at various temperatures are performed together with fracture surface observations and cross-sectional analyses. The influence of martensite-austenite (M-A) constituents and of “crystallographic” bainite packets on cleavage fracture micromechanisms is, thus, evidenced as a function of temperature. Three weakest-link probabilistic models (the “Master-curve” (MC) approach, the Beremin model, and a “double-barrier” (DB) model) are applied to account for the ductile-to-brittle transition (DBT) fracture toughness curve. Some analogy, but also differences, are found between the MC approach and the Beremin model. The DB model, having nonfitted, physically based scatter parameters, is applied to the martensite-containing HAZ microstructures and gives promising results.