Parametric failure analysis of metal-based composites

Metal-based composites can fail as a consequence of the growth and coalescence of micro-voids introduced with the manufacturing process. These detrimental phenomena influence the overall performance of the material to different extents since the macroscopic characteristics depend on both the local constitutive properties and geometry patterns, which promote various stress concentration and strain localization effects. The understanding of the different situations that arise in this context is often assisted by numerical simulations based on the GNT constitutive model, first proposed by Gurson (1977) and then refined by Needleman and Tvergaard (1984). However, exploring the influence of the most relevant material parameters on the composite response can be excessively time consuming. Therefore, traditional simulations based on non-linear finite element methods can be replaced by surrogate analytical approximations, which do not involve large computing costs but exhibit accuracy and sensitivity to the model parameters consistent with the practical applications. Some examples are presented in this contribution.