A void coalescence model for combined tension and shear

The influence of shear loading on damage development in Gurson-based models has long been neglected resulting in inadequate fracture strain predictions at low triaxiality where shear effects become significant. The plastic limit-load fracture criterion used in advanced Gurson models neglects the influence of shear loading and overestimates the fracture strain and porosity at low triaxiality. In this paper, we extend the recently proposed shear damage model of Xue [1] to provide a stronger physical foundation by removing the simplifying assumptions. Then we directly modify the plastic limit-load fracture criterion by coupling with the extended shear damage model to account for shear weakening and failure of the intervoid ligament in void coalescence. We apply the modified plastic limit-load criterion to predict the necking of sheet tensile specimens and find very good agreement with the available experimental results.