Prediction of Component Failure using ‘Progressive Damage and Failure Model’ and Its Application in Automotive Wheel Design 2015-01-1516

Damages (fracture) in metals are caused by material degradation due to crack initiation and growth due to fatigue or dynamic loadings. The accurate and realistic modeling of an inelastic behavior of metals is essential for the solution of various problems occurring in engineering fields. Currently, various theories and failure models are available to predict the damage initiation and the growth in metals. In this paper, the failure of aluminum alloy is studied using progressive damage and failure material model using Abaqus explicit solver. This material model has the capability to predict the damage initiation due to the ductile and shear failure. After damage initiation, the material stiffness is degraded progressively according to the specified damage evolution response. The progressive damage models allow a smooth degradation of the material stiffness, in both quasi-static and dynamic situations. Further in this paper, the material model is validated for tensile and shear failure using standard specimens. Then the validated material model is used in the damage prediction of the aluminum wheel due to compression load and good correlation is achieved within 5% of deviation.