INFLUENCES OF MICROSCOPE SIZE EFFECT OF MATRIX ON PLASTIC POTENTIAL AND VOID GROWTH OF POROUS MATERIALS

Based on approximate theoretical analyses on a typical spherical cellcontaining a spherical rnicrovoid, the influences of matrix materials' microscopic scale on themacroscopic constitutive potential theory of porous material and microvoid growth have beeninvestigated in detail. By assuming that the plastic: deformation behavior of matrix materialsfollows the strain gradient (SG) plastic theory involving the stretch and rotation gradients , theratio (λ = l/a) of the matrix materials' intrinsic characteristic length l to the micro-void radiusa is introduced into the plastic constitutive potential and the void growth law. The presentresults indicate that, when the radius a of microvoids is comparable with the intrinsiccharacteristic length l of the matrix materials, the influence of microscopic size effect on neitherthe constitutive potential nor the micro-void evolution predicted can be ignored. And when the voidradius a is much lager than the intrinsic characteristic length l of the matrix materials, thepresent model can retrogress automatically to the improved Gur-son model that takes into account thestrain hardening effect of matrix materials.