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ELSEVIER Journal of Materials Processing Technology 54 (1995) 109-113

Use of the stretch zone for the characterization of ductile fracture

M. Nabil Bassim
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man., R3T2N2, Canada
Received l April 1994

Industrial summary

There is an increasing effort to use the stretch zone ahead of a fatigue crack as a measure of the fracture toughness of ductile
materials, particularly in cases where alternative means of measuring the toughness are not possible, e.g. at high strain rates. The
stretch zone (SZ) is hence related to parameters such as the J-integral. It was, however, found that the relationship between (SZ) and
J~c is affected by other factors including fatigue pre-straining of the material. In this study, the effect of initial pre-straining on the
evolution of the stretch zone in a number of ductile steels was investigated. Actual measurements of the deformation of the stretch
zone as it is loaded were undertaken using electron microscopy. It is shown that both prior pre-straining and fatigue pre-cracking
have a significant work-hardening effect, which controls the width of the stretch zone and hence the measured fracture toughness.

1. Introduction is a significant improvement over other reported ap-

There is an intimate relationship between the fracture
behavior of materials and the extent of the plasticity that
occurs at the tip of the crack. There is experimental
evidence that this crack-tip plasticity manifests itself as
a stretch zone (SZ) ahead of the crack, the extent of which
has been related to the fracture toughness. Of the frac-
ture-toughness parameters used currently, the J-integral,
represents the strength of the crack-tip singularity of
elastic-plastic bodies [1], the value of Jic being indepen-
dent of geometry [2]. The stretch zone during elastic-
plastic fracture is considered as a result of crack-tip
blunting [3-5] and can be correlated reasonably with the
critical crack-tip opening displacement [6], which im-
plies that the dimensions of the stretch zone can be
a measure of the C T O D at fracture and are related
directly to the fracture-toughness parameter, J~c [7].
The procedure for using scanning electron microscopy
for observation of the stretch zone is well documented
[8, 9]. The stretch-zone approach has been shown to be
very useful for characterizing the fracture toughness of
materials for which compliance measurements and the
detection of the onset of crack growth are difficult to
achieve and where a permanent record that can be veri-
fied independently in various laboratories is needed [10].
Furthermore, recently, a study of the use of stereoscopy
imaging to determine the stretch-zone width (SZW) has
been published [11]. It was found that this technique
reduces the measurement errors to less than 10%, which
proaches.
Whilst the SZ which appears during the fracturing of
ductile materials has been related phenomenologically to
the fracture toughness by equations such as
Aa = (SZW) = J / 2 k a f tan fl, (1)
where (Aa) is the stretch-zone width, J is the fracture
toughness parameter (the J-integral), af is the flow stress
taken as the average between the yield and the maximum
strength, k is a constant and 2fl is the crack blunting
angle, few studies have examined the mechanisms of
deformation of the material at the crack tip in terms of
dislocations and dislocation structures and thus have not
accounted for the effects of fatigue pre-straining, which
causes a plastic and process zone to evolve ahead of the
crack as well as causing extensive pre-straining to occur
in the material, which effectively changes its mechanical
properties such as strength and ductility. Previous stud-
ies on this effect by Amouzouvi [12] and Amouzouvi and
Bassim [13, 14] as well as by Bayoumi and Bassim
[15, 16] have shown that light pre-straining by either
cold rolling or by applying a tensile loading causes signif-
icant changes (increases) in the fracture toughness and
also affects the evolution of the dislocation structures
present in the material.
In this study, microscopic examination of the SZ is
studied further in order to actually determine the strain
distribution in the stretch zone and to effectively relate
the stretch zone, using dislocation models, to the fracture

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SSDI 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 5 ) 0 1 9 2 8 - 8
110 M.N. Bassim /Journal of Materials Processing Technology 54 (1995) 109-113
toughness in the material. AISI 4340 steel is used as an
example for the theories developed, which are also ap-
plied to other high-strength low-alloy steels.
2. Experimental approaches
The major material used in this investigation was AISI
4340 steel. Tensile and compact-tension specimens of this
steel were tested under various conditions in order to
develop a data base for the evolution of the stretch zone.
Thus, the fracture toughness of this material was deter-
mined under conditions of pre-straining obtained from
cold rolling and from tensile loading, this pre-straining
ranging from 0% (the annealed condition) to 15% strain.
Simultaneously with the mechanical and fracture testing,
stretch-zone measurements on fractured compact-ten-
sion specimens were performed to observe the evolution
of the stretch zone as a function of pre-straining. Also,
from the tensile specimens, transmission electron micros-
copy specimens were prepared by sectioning the necked
regions at various distances from the fracture, thus cor-
responding to different reductions in area (strains), and
this was followed by observation of the dislocation struc-
tures in the necked regions in order to estimate the
dislocation densities, the increasing of which produces
ductile fracture: this is shown in Fig. 1.
/.-Foil
Fracture
S~rf°c~ --"~.~~
~'-~/
i
Fig. 1. Location of the T E M samples in a transverse section of a tensile
specimen.
Fig. 2. Showing the grid on the fatigue surface of a C T specimen.
Other materials tested involved a number of HSLA
steels with different compositions of niobium and tita-
nium as well as HY100 steel. These materials were char-
acterized for their fracture toughness and other tensile
properties and also for the evolution of the SZ. In par-
ticular, the strains developed in the bending of a fatigue
crack surface were mapped using scanning electron
microscopy which followed the deformation of a grid
deposited on the fatigue surface, as shown in Fig. 2.
3. Theoretical
On the macroscopical level (mechanics), Eq.(1) can be
reduced to [-10]:
J = 2af Aa, (2)
withk= 1 and/~=45°.
The term Aa can be written in terms of the elastic and
plastic components as
Aa = Aac = Aap, (3)
but the SZ has an original length
SZW = Aap + Lsz, (4)
where Lsz is the original length of the stretch crack
surface. Therefore,
Aa = Aae = SEW - Lsz (5)
or
Aae - Lsz) (6)
J = 2o'f(SZW +
in its general form
J = C1 (SZW) (7)
and
J = C2o f (SZW). (8)
Constants C1 o r C 2 are actually related to the fatigue
loading and to the extent of pre-straining that the fatigue
loading produces in the specimen. Another factor in the
evaluation of these constants is the averaging procedure
for determination of the s z w , considering that for elas-
tic-plastic specimens the width of the stretch zone varies
across the crack front, being maximum near to the centre
and minimum near to the edges. However, for specimens
of smaller size where plastic conditions dominate, the
width of the stretch zone becomes uniform across the
crack front.
The microstructural aspect of the evaluation of the
stretch zone is related to formation of dislocation struc-
tures, due to plastification, followed by further cracking.
Initially, models have been proposed for the interaction
of a crack with individual dislocations, thus explaining
the behaviour of materials with limited ductility.
 M.N. Bassim / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 54 (1995) 109-113 111

Lt
r

Fig. 3. M o d e l of the i n t e r a c t i o n of a c r a c k with d i s l o c a t i o n structures,

c a u s i n g a stretch zone.

For ductile materials, the model for crack blunting is

shown in Fig. 3, and involves the development of a region
ahead of the crack where the strain is sufficient to pro-
duce dislocation cell structures which would have a min-
imum cell size described by the mesh-length theory of
work hardening [17, 18]. The onset of crack growth,
defining the stretch zone, occurs when the stress due to
these cells approaches the cohesive strength of the mater-
ial or when other factors, including the presence of pre-
cipitates and/or inclusions, cause decohesion of the
matrix and the initiation of a crack. A derivation for
relating the fracture toughness parameter Jtc to the total
energy Et opposing loading is as follows

E t = Ecell s + E.... k, (9)

where Ecens is the energy required to form cells and

for the cells to decrease in size until a critical size is
reached, and E .... k is the plastic work for the dislocation
to interact with the crack causing blunting. It is shown
that
~p = E . . . . k = a,r bNm bIL 1+
n k
and
gcells = 4-----n- ' The results indicate that there is a strong effect of
where a,r is the shear stress developed on inclined
slip planes as a result of the applied stress, N m is
the density of mobile dislocations interacting with the
crack, b is the Burger's vector length, L is the dislocation
source length and n is the number of dislocations in
a given slip plane. For Eq. (11), G is the shear modulus,
R is the upper cut-off radius for dislocation structures,
[(v) is a function depending on whether the dislocations
are of edge- or screw-type and p is the dislocation
density.
Fig. 4(a) a n d (b) T y p i c a l S E M m i c r o g r a p h s of stretch zones.
4. Results and discussion
Typical stretch-zone scanning electron micrographs
(lO) are shown in Figs. 4 (a) and (b), whilst Fig. 5 shows SZ as
a function of pre-straining for 4340 steel for a pre-strain
equal to 2%. The variation of the stretch zone with prior
deformation is shown in Fig. 6(a) and the corresponding
JIc obtained from Eq. (1) is shown in Fig. 6(b) [19].
pre-straining on the resulting stretch zone and the frac-
ture parameter Jlc. Up to 2% pre-straining produces
a significant increase in the stretch zone and hence de-
fines a marked role in the evolution of dislocation struc-
tures in the material prior to the onset of crack growth.
The proposed models assume that as the crack-bearing
metal is subjected to a stress, a plastic zone develops
ahead of the crack in which plastic deformation takes
place. In this zone, dislocations are generated which
subsequently multiply, forming dislocation structures,
until eventually well-developed cells are formed. These
112 M.N. Bassim /Journal of Materials Processing Technology 54 (1995) 109-113

'=! 2~

0 I 2 3 4. 5 6 7 O g 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
STP,~N (Z)

Fig. 7. Stress-strain curves for fatigued (upper curve) and polished

Fig. 5. SEM micrograph of the stretch zone in a CT specimen pre- (lower curved )CT specimen-surfaces.
strained to 2%.

the m a x i m u m density and when the stresses associated

with these structures are close to the cohensive strength
of the material.
OK)
The strains developed in the stretch zone were studied
using a bending specimen which, on one side, has a fa-
tigued surface [20]. The main result is shown in
Fig. 7 compare the stress-strain curve for a fatigued
surface to that of a polished surface (no stretch zone). It is
observed that the fatigued surface with a stretch zone has
a higher yield strength (about 15% in this case), which
allows the conclusion that fatigue pre-cracking causes
pre-straining and hence affects both the macroscopic and
~000 I I I T--
microscopic aspects of the stretch zone.
0 S I0 15
(a) COCO ~ R [%1

5. C o n c l u s i o n s

200 Current assumptions for the calculation of the tough-

N
'E ness from the width of the stretch zone are questionable.
Strain hardening associated with fatigue pre-cracking
~ 15o
v and local pre-straining at the crack tip contribute to the
measured stretch zone and affect the calculation of J~c-
Ioo Correction which take into account both the averaging
J
procedure and the extent of evolution of the dislocation
structure are required to obtain a meaningful measure-
-, 50 q
E
ment of the stretch zone.

0 i I !
0 5 I0 15
(b) COLD WORK R (%) References

Fig. 6. Showing the variation with pre-strain of: (a) the width of the
stretch zone; and (b) the value of J]o
cells shrink in size until they reach a minimum cell size.
This process absorbs energy and contributes to an in-
crease in the fracture toughness. Simultaneously, free
dislocation links may be attracted to the crack tip itself,
causing blunting. The onset of crack growth will occur
when the dislocation density of the material approaches
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113
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