Fracture mechanism and model of 18Ni maraging steel

18Ni maraging steel is normally used to make key components by machining processes. It is necessary to understand the fracture mechanism and behaviour of 18Ni maraging steel for the study and further optimisation of machining processes. In this paper, the Split Hopkinson Tensile Bar tests accompanied by quasi-static mechanical tests are carried out to relate the stress triaxiality, deformation temperature and strain rate with the fracture strain. During the building up of the fracture model, it is noticed that the change of fracture mechanism from 600°C to 900°C brings about a non-linear relationship of fracture strain with the deformation temperature. This results in a large error in fitting the Johnson–Cook (J-C) fracture model, so a modified fracture model is put forward.