Investigation of the effect of porosity on intergranular brittle fracture using peridynamics

Brittle materials are widely used and their fracture behaviour can be significantly influenced by their microstructures and microstructural defects including pores, microcracks, grains and grain boundaries. In this study, the effect of porosity on intergranular fracture behaviour of polycrystalline materials is investigated by using peridynamics. Different number of cases are considered for different number of grains, different porosity ratios, different locations of pores and different grain boundary strengths. It is concluded that the severity of the cracks, especially the newly created cracks, are influenced by the number of grains and porosity. Moreover, with the increase of grain boundary strength, the effect of porosity dramatically decreases and the fracture pattern in microscale becomes identical to the macroscale crack pattern.