8. Glossary

ductility; ductilité

A material's intrinsic capacity to undergo a certain amount of plastic deformation without breaking (or forming meso-cracks).

germination; nucleation

Mechanism for the appearance of microporosities, either through inclusion fragmentation or inclusion-matrix decohesion.

coalescence; coalescence

Final failure mechanism at microstructural level. Formation of microcracks between pores, leading to complete macroscopic failure of the material.

fracture criterion

Generally decoupled from the material's behavior, a fracture criterion is used to calculate the time at which fracture occurs (either through critical damage or plastic deformation at fracture) as a function of the stress state during the loading...