AbstractThe accumulation of cavitation damage with increasing strain during the biaxial deformation of two superplastic aluminium-base alloys has been studied using densitometry and quantitative metallography. A model based on constitutive relationships for the diffusive and plastic growth of voids has been extended to account for cavity coalescence, a phenomenon commonly observed during superplastic deformation. Good agreement between the measured and calculated cavity growth rates was obtained for one alloy (AI 7475), while discrepancies observed for the second alloy (Supral 220) are explained in terms of the effects of continuous cavity nucleation.MST/189