Examination and modeling of void growth kinetics in modern high strength dual phase steels during uniaxial tensile deformation

Ductile fracture mechanisms during uniaxial tensile testing of two different modern high strength dual phase steels, i.e. DP780 and DP980, were studied. Detailed microstructural characterization of the strained and sectioned samples was performed by scanning electron microscopy as well as EBSD examination. The results revealed that interface decohesion, especially at martensite particles located at ferrite grain boundaries, was the most probable mechanism for void nucleation. It was also revealed that the creation of cellular substructure can reduce stored strain energy and thereby, higher true fracture strain was obtained in DP980 than DP780 steel. Prediction of void growth behavior based on some previously proposed models showed unreliable results. Therefore, a modified model based on Rice-Tracey family models was proposed which showed a very lower prediction error compared with other models.