The present project is concerned with the effect of the manufacturing process on the downstream performance of a given structural component subjected to service and/or accidental loads. Although this problem has direct applications in aerospace, defense, and automotive industry, no relevant work has been reported in the open literature. The objective of the new project is to get a fundamental understanding of the mechanics of ductile fracture under complex loading paths and to develop a more general fracture model applicable to both monotonic and reverse loading. A pilot study conducted at MIT has shown that the material ductility in tension is dramatically affected by the amount of pre-compression. The project will extend the existing fracture theories to the case of complex loading histories and thereby will lead to the improvement of the reliability and accuracy of simulation-based design.
