Continuum damage mechanics for sintered powder metals

Sintered metals are characterized by the high porosity (⩾ 8%) and voids/micro-cracks in microns. Inelastic behavior of the materials is coupled with micro-crack propagation and coalescence of open voids. In the present work the damage evolution of the sintered iron under multi-axial monotonic loading conditions was investigated experimentally and computationally. The tests indicated that damage of the sintered iron initiated already at a stress level much lower than the macroscopic yield stress. The damage process can be divided into the stress-dominated elastic damage and the plastic damage described by the plastic strain. Based on the uniaxial tensile tests an elastic-plastic continuum damage model was developed which predicts both elastic damage and plastic damage in the sintered iron under general multi-axial monotonic loading conditions. Computational predictions agree with experiments with different multi-axial loading paths. A phenomenological continuum damage model for the sintered metal is developed based on the experimental observations to predict the inelastic behavior and damage process to failure under multi-axial loading conditions. The proposed damage model is experimentally verified under different loading conditions.