1 2D and 3D visualization of ductile fracture

The final stage of the ductile fracture process that leads to the failure of the material, i.e. the coalescence of the voids, occurs over small strain increments. This makes it hard to observe, and explains the lack of experimental results in the literature. The present contribution focuses on in-situ tensile testing of two new model materials, specially created to capture the coalescence event. The first is tested in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and enables us to observe the coalescence in 2D. The second model material is tested in an X-Ray computed tomography set-up and provides 3D views of the ductile fracture process. The use of model materials to simplify the observation of a given phenomena is not new. From the use of bubble rafts to simulate the bonding and packing of atoms and observe the behavior of dislocations in solids[1] to the use of laser-induced defects on the surface of materials for fatigue studies[2], model materials have proven to be extremely useful in helping to understand fundamental phenomenon. In the field of ductile fracture, several 2 model materials have been proposed – for example, Babout et al. (2000) [3], Gammag