Deformation and failure of OFHC copper under high strain rate shear compression

Hat-shaped specimen geometries were developed to generate high strain, high-strain-rates deformation under prescribed conditions. These geometries offer also the possibility to investigate the occurrence of ductile rupture under low or negative stress triaxiality, where most failure models fail. In this work, three tophat geometries were designed, by means of extensive numerical simulation, to obtain desired stress triaxiality values within the shear region that develops across the ligament. Material failure was simulated using the Continuum Damage Model (CDM) formulation with a unilateral condition for damage accumulation and validated by comparing with quasi-static and high strain rate compression tests results on OFHC copper. Preliminary results seem to indicate that ductile tearing initiates at the specimen corner location where positive stress triaxiality occurs because of local rotation and eventually propagates along the ligament.