A micromechanical model for the prediction of the temperature fracture behavior dependence in metallic alloys

In the present paper, a micro-mechanical model based on energetic considerations is developed to simulate the effect of the environmental temperature on the fracture toughness of metallic alloys. By considering a homogenization procedure, the stress-strain field and the corresponding strain energy in the material due to a temperature variation can be determined. A generalization of the fracture mechanics energy balance by including the temperature effects is discussed. The proposed micro-mechanical model is governed by few parameters which can be simply estimated, and allows to determine the fracture toughness for any temperature below the room temperature. Such a model, applied to metallic alloys, seems to be able to correctly predict the fracture behavior at low temperatures.