Jivkov's articles
A two-dimensional mesoscale model for intergranular stress corrosion crack propagation
Abstract
A mechanical model for simulating intergranular stress corrosion cracking is presented. The model has been developed to address the limitations of
percolation-like models, which do not account for the mechanical crack driving force and cannot capture experimentally observed phenomena such as
the formation of ductile bridging ligaments by resistant boundaries. The model is based on a regular representation of the material’s microstructure
and a categorisation of grain boundaries as susceptible and resistant to corrosion. Crack propagation in 2D microstructures with several fractions of
experimentally observed susceptible boundaries is studied. Monte-Carlo type simulations with random distributions of boundaries and a range of susceptible
and resistant boundaries failure strengths are performed. The effects of crack bridging and crack branching are quantified. It is concluded that together
with the fraction of susceptible boundaries, the resistant boundaries failure strength is the significant parameter controlling the shielding effect of
bridges on crack propagation.