Nonlocal continuum crystal plasticity with internal residual stresses

We derive a three-dimensional constitutive theory accounting for length-scale dependent internal residual stresses in crystalline materials that develop due to a non-homogeneous spatial distribution of the excess dislocation (edge and screw) density. The second-order internal stress tensor is derived using the Beltrami stress function tensor φ that is related to the Nye dislocation density tensor. The formulation is derived explicitly in a three-dimensional continuum setting for elastically isotropic materials. The internal stresses appear as additional resolved shear stresses in the crystallographic visco-plastic constitutive law for individual slip systems. Using this formulation, we investigate two boundary value problems involving single crystals under symmetric double slip. In the first problem, the response of a geometrically imperfect specimen subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading is investigated. The internal stresses affect the overall strengthening and hardening under monotonic loading, which is mediated by the severity of initial imperfections. Such imperfections are common in miniaturized specimens in the form of tapered surfaces, fillets, fabrication induced damage, etc., which may produce strong gradients in an otherwise nominally homogeneous loading condition. Under cyclic loading the asymmetry in the tensile and compressive strengths due to this internal stress is also strongly influenced by the degree of imperfection. In the second example, we consider simple shear of a single crystalline lamella from a layered specimen. The lamella exhibits strengthening with decreasing thickness and increasing lattice incompatibility with shearing direction. However, as the thickness to internal length-scale ratio becomes small the strengthening saturates due to the saturation of the internal stress.Finally, we present the extension of this approach for crystalline materials exhibiting elastic anisotropy, which essentially depends on the appropriate Green function within φ.     

A crystal plasticity model that incorporates stresses and strains due to slip gradients

This work is concerned with incorporating the kinematic and stress effects of excess dislocations in a constitutive model for the elastoplastic behavior of crystalline materials. The foundation of the model is a three term multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient in which the two classical terms of plastic and elastic deformation are included along with an additional term for long range strain due to the collective effects of excess dislocations. The long range strain is obtained from an assumed density of Volterra edge dislocations and is directly related to gradients in slip. A new material parameter emerges which is the size the region about a continuum point that contributes to long range strains.Using Hookean elasticity, the stress at a point is linearly related to the sum of the elastic plus the long range strain fields. However, the driving force for slip is postulated to be due only to the elastic stress so that the long range stress is a back stress in the constitutive relationship for plastic deformation. A consistent balance of the total deformation rate with the three proposed mechanisms of deformation leads to a set of differential equations that can be solved for the elastic stress, rotation and pressure which then implicitly defines the material state and equilibrium stress. Results from the simulation of a tapered tensile specimen demonstrate that the constitutive model exhibits isotropic and kinematic type hardening effects as well as changes in the pattern of plastic deformation and necking when compared to a material without slip gradient effects.     

Simulation of rate dependent plasticity for polymers with asymmetric effects

Polycarbonate is an amorphous polymer which exhibits a pronounced strength-differential effect between compression and tension. Also strain rate and temperature influence the mechanical response of the polycarbonate. The concept of stress mode dependent weighting functions is used in the proposed model to simulate the asymmetric effects for different loading speeds. In this concept, an additive decomposition of the flow rule is assumed into a sum of weighted stress mode related quantities. The characterization of the stress modes is obtained in the octahedral plane of the deviatoric stress space in terms of the mode angle, such that stress mode dependent scalar weighting functions can be constructed. The resulting evolution equations are updated using a backward Euler scheme and the algorithmic tangent operator is derived for the finite element equilibrium iteration. The numerical implementation of the resulting set of constitutive equations is used in a finite element program for parameter identification. The proposed model is verified by showing a good agreement with the experimental data. After that the model is used to simulate the laser transmission welding process.     

Non-convex rate dependent strain gradient crystal plasticity and deformation patterning

A rate dependent strain gradient crystal plasticity framework is presented where the displacement and the plastic slip fields are considered as primary variables. These coupled fields are determined on a global level by solving simultaneously the linear momentum balance and the slip evolution equation, which is derived in a thermodynamically consistent manner. The formulation is based on the 1D theory presented in Yalcinkaya et al. (2011), where the patterning of plastic slip is obtained in a system with non-convex energetic hardening through a phenomenological double-well plastic potential. In the current multi-dimensional multi-slip analysis the non-convexity enters the framework through a latent hardening potential presented in Ortiz and Repettto (1999) where the microstructure evolution is obtained explicitly via a lamination procedure. The current study aims the implicit evolution of deformation patterns due to the incorporated physically based non-convex potential.     

Non-local crystal plasticity model with intrinsic SSD and GND effects

A strain gradient-dependent crystal plasticity approach is presented to model the constitutive behaviour of polycrystal FCC metals under large plastic deformation. In order to be capable of predicting scale dependence, the heterogeneous deformation-induced evolution and distribution of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) are incorporated into the phenomenological continuum theory of crystal plasticity. Consequently, the resulting boundary value problem accommodates, in addition to the ordinary stress equilibrium condition, a condition which sets the additional nodal degrees of freedom, the edge and screw GND densities, proportional (in a weak sense) to the gradients of crystalline slip. Next to this direct coupling between microstructural dislocation evolutions and macroscopic gradients of plastic slip, another characteristic of the presented crystal plasticity model is the incorporation of the GND-effect, which leads to an essentially different constitutive behaviour than the statistically stored dislocation (SSD) densities. The GNDs, by their geometrical nature of locally similar signs, are expected to influence the plastic flow through a non-local back-stress measure, counteracting the resolved shear stress on the slip systems in the undeformed situation and providing a kinematic hardening contribution. Furthermore, the interactions between both SSD and GND densities are subject to the formation of slip system obstacle densities and accompanying hardening, accountable for slip resistance. As an example problem and without loss of generality, the model is applied to predict the formation of boundary layers and the accompanying size effect of a constrained strip under simple shear deformation, for symmetric double-slip conditions.     

A robust integration algorithm for implementing rate dependent crystal plasticity into explicit finite element method

Severe numerical instability in the integration of rate dependent crystal plasticity (RDCP) model is one of the main problems for implementing RDCP into finite element method (FEM), especially for simulating dynamic/transient forming process containing complicated contact conditions under large step length, large strain and high strain rate. In order to overcome the problem, an implicit model is deduced with the primary unknowns of shear strain increments of slip systems under the corotational coordinate system in the paper. The homotopy auto-changing continuation method combined with the Newton–Raphson (N–R) iteration is adopted. The subroutine VUMAT is developed for implementing RDCP model in ABAQUS/Explicit. Simulation results show that the algorithm is stable and accurate in 3D FE simulations on both dynamic simple loading and complicated loading process containing nonlinear contacts under the conditions of the maximal step length of 3.5 × 10⁻⁶ s, the maximal strain of 1.05, the maximal loading speed of 120 mm s⁻¹, and the minimal material rate sensitivity coefficient of 0.01. The predictions of the model on crystal behaviors of anisotropy, rate sensitivity and elasticity, as well as ear profiles in deep cup drawing are in agreement with experiments.     

A nanoscale model of crystal plasticity

In this paper a nanoscale model of crystal plasticity is introduced. The model is characterized by distinct, separate slip surfaces on which discontinuity for the deformation function takes place. Slip displacements considered on the slip surfaces are a measure of plastic deformation. In the case when the slip surface does not intersect the whole body, evolution of boundary of this surface is also considered. Criteria for initiation and stopping of slips are discussed. Evolution equations for slip displacements and for the boundary of the slip surface displacements are introduced. Nanoscale modelling is expressed in the model by distinguishing slip surfaces as well as by the form of the free energy which takes into account details appropriate for this scale. In particular, criteria for initiation of slip are expressed by means of the form of the free energy. As a result the slip systems are also defined by means of this function. More fine effects such as inhomogeneities in crystal structure, induced by defects and dislocations, are represented within the model by internal state variables. The possibility of creep modelling within the concepts presented is discussed.     

A peridynamic implementation of crystal plasticity

This paper presents the first application of peridynamics theory for crystal plasticity simulations. A state-based theory of peridynamics is used (Silling et al., 2007) where the forces in the bonds between particles are computed from stress tensors obtained from crystal plasticity. The stress tensor at a particle, in turn, is computed from strains calculated by tracking the motion of surrounding particles. We have developed a quasi-static implementation of the peridynamics theory. The code employs an implicit iterative solution procedure similar to a non-linear finite element implementation. Peridynamics results are compared with crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) analysis for the problem of plane strain compression of a planar polycrystal. The stress, strain field distribution and the texture formation predicted by CPFE and peridynamics were found to compare well. One particular feature of peridynamics is its ability to model fine shear bands that occur naturally in deforming polycrystalline aggregates. Peridynamics simulations are used to study the origin and evolution of these shear bands as a function of strain and slip geometry.     

Strain gradient crystal plasticity effects on flow localization

In metal grains one of the most important failure mechanisms involves shear band localization. As the band width is small, the deformations are affected by material length scales. To study localization in single grains a rate-dependent crystal plasticity formulation for finite strains is presented for metals described by the reformulated Fleck–Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity theory. The theory is implemented numerically within a finite element framework using slip rate increments and displacement increments as state variables. The formulation reduces to the classical crystal plasticity theory in the absence of strain gradients. The model is used to study the effect of an internal material length scale on the localization of plastic flow in shear bands in a single crystal under plane strain tension. It is shown that the mesh sensitivity is removed when using the nonlocal material model considered. Furthermore, it is illustrated how different hardening functions affect the formation of shear bands.     

Finite element analysis of grain-by-grain deformation by crystal plasticity with couple stress

Rigid–plastic crystal plasticity with the rate-sensitive constitutive behavior of a slip system has been formulated within the framework of a two-dimensional finite element method to predict the grain-by-grain deformation of single- and polycrystalline FCC metals. For that purpose, individual grains are represented by several numbers of finite elements to describe the sub-grain deformation behavior, and couple stress has been introduced into the equilibrium equation to be able to describe the size effect as well as to prevent mesh-dependent predictions. A modified virtual work-rate principle with an approximate interface constraint has been suggested to use a C ⁰-continuous element in the finite element implementation, and the couple stress work-rate has been formulated on the basis of an assumed constitutive behavior. Simulated plane-strain compressions of a single crystal cube show that the shearing and the deformation load are closely related to the imbedded lattice orientation of the crystal grain, and that the sub-grain deformation and the load magnitude can be controlled by the couple stress hardening. It is also confirmed that almost the same predictions are obtained for different mesh systems by considering the couple stress hardening. Simulated plane-strain compressions of a bi-crystal show considerably curved grain-by-grain surface profiles after large reduction for several combinations of the imbedded lattice orientation. The high couple stress hardening predicted around grain boundaries is supposed to be related to the grain size effect. It is also supposed that consideration of couple stress is necessary to predict the sub-grain or the grain-by-grain deformation, and the couple stress hardening may be used to describe the state of microstructures in grain.     

Strain gradient crystal plasticity analysis of a single crystal containing a cylindrical void

The effects of void size and hardening in a hexagonal close-packed single crystal containing a cylindrical void loaded by a far-field equibiaxial tensile stress under plane strain conditions are studied. The crystal has three in-plane slip systems oriented at the angle 60° with respect to one another. Finite element simulations are performed using a strain gradient crystal plasticity formulation with an intrinsic length scale parameter in a non-local strain gradient constitutive framework. For a vanishing length scale parameter the non-local formulation reduces to a local crystal plasticity formulation. The stress and deformation fields obtained with a local non-hardening constitutive formulation are compared to those obtained from a local hardening formulation and to those from a non-local formulation. Compared to the case of the non-hardening local constitutive formulation, it is shown that a local theory with hardening has only minor effects on the deformation field around the void, whereas a significant difference is obtained with the non-local constitutive relation. Finally, it is shown that the applied stress state required to activate plastic deformation at the void is up to three times higher for smaller void sizes than for larger void sizes in the non-local material.     

A stochastic approach to capture crystal plasticity

A stochastic crystal plasticity model is proposed and applied within the rate-independent regime. As opposed to conventional deterministic algorithms wherein multiple slip systems are activated and redundant constraints may exist, the new Monte Carlo plasticity (MCP) paradigm is based on a stochastic chain of singly activated slip systems and thus avoids the possible ill-condition associated with multi-slip algorithms. The choice of the activated slip system is made at each Monte Carlo (MC) step based on the Metropolis algorithm. The MCP model is implemented within a Material Point Method (MPM) as a constitutive model to capture the elasto-plastic behavior of polycrystalline materials. A comparison with a commonly used singular value decomposition (SVD) algorithm indicates that MCP offers superior computational efficiency while maintaining comparable accuracy.     

Size effects in generalised continuum crystal plasticity for two-phase laminates

The solutions of a boundary value problem are explored for various classes of generalised crystal plasticity models including Cosserat, strain gradient and micromorphic crystal plasticity. The considered microstructure consists of a two-phase laminate containing a purely elastic and an elasto-plastic phase undergoing single or double slip. The local distributions of plastic slip, lattice rotation and stresses are derived when the microstructure is subjected to simple shear. The arising size effects are characterised by the overall extra back stress component resulting from the action of higher order stresses, a characteristic length l_c describing the size-dependent domain of material response, and by the corresponding scaling law lⁿ as a function of microstructural length scale, l. Explicit relations for these quantities are derived and compared for the different models. The conditions at the interface between the elastic and elasto-plastic phases are shown to play a major role in the solution. A range of material parameters is shown to exist for which the Cosserat and micromorphic approaches exhibit the same behaviour. The models display in general significantly different asymptotic regimes for small microstructural length scales. Scaling power laws with the exponent continuously ranging from 0 to −2 are obtained depending on the values of the material parameters. The unusual exponent value −2 is obtained for the strain gradient plasticity model, denoted “curl H^p” in this work. These results provide guidelines for the identification of higher order material parameters of crystal plasticity models from experimental data, such as precipitate size effects in precipitate strengthened alloys.     

A physically based model of temperature and strain rate dependent yield in BCC metals: Implementation into crystal plasticity

In this work, we develop a crystal plasticity finite element model (CP-FEM) that constitutively captures the temperature and strain rate dependent flow stresses in pure BCC refractory metals. This model is based on the kink-pair theory developed by Seeger (1981) and is calibrated to available data from single crystal experiments to produce accurate and convenient constitutive laws that are implemented into a BCC crystal plasticity model. The model is then used to predict temperature and strain rate dependent yield stresses of single and polycrystal BCC refractory metals (molybdenum, tantalum, tungsten and niobium) and compared with existing experimental data. To connect to larger length scales, classical continuum-scale constitutive models are fit to the CP-FEM predictions of polycrystal yield stresses. The results produced by this model, based on kink-pair theory and with origins in dislocation mechanics, show excellent agreement with the Mechanical Threshold Stress (MTS) model for temperature and strain-rate dependent flow. This framework provides a method to bridge multiple length scales in modeling the deformation of BCC metals.     

A crack on the grain boundary — An analysis based on crystal plasticity theory

The influence of the mismatch of the lattice orientation on the deformation and stress fields of a crack located on the grain boundary is studied by means of the finite-element analysis taking account of finite deformatio and finite lattice rotation. The plane strain calculations for an fcc crystal subjected to mode I loading are performed on the basis of the crystalline plasticity described by a planar three-slip model. For the crack-tip shapes and the dominant deformation modes on slip systems, results of all the cases analysed here are in qualitative agreement with the earlier analytical and numerical solutions. Our results indicate that the lattice orientation difference may greatly influence the shear stress along the grain boundary which is related to grain-boundary sliding, while the normal stress along the grain boundary, which may induce cleavage fracture, is virtually insensitive to it. The influence of the lattice orientations on the crack-tip fields is also investigated under small-scale-yielding conditions and the comparison with the results of finite deformation is made.     

A screw dislocation near a non-parabolic open inhomogeneity with internal uniform stresses

We use conformal mapping techniques and analytic continuation to prove that the stress field inside a non-parabolic open inhomogeneity embedded in a matrix subjected to uniform remote anti-plane stresses can nevertheless remain uniform despite the presence of a screw dislocation in its vicinity. Furthermore, the internal uniform stresses inside the inhomogeneity are found to be independent of both the shape of the inhomogeneity and the presence of the screw dislocation. On the other hand, we find that the existence of the nearby screw dislocation exerts a significant influence on the non-parabolic shape of the inhomogeneity.     

A screw dislocation near a coated non-elliptical inhomogeneity with internal uniform stresses

We consider the anti-plane shear deformation of a three-phase inhomogeneity-coating-matrix composite containing a coated non-elliptical inhomogeneity whose surrounding matrix is subjected to the action of a screw dislocation and uniform remote anti-plane shear stresses. Our objective is to establish conditions under which the inhomogeneity maintains an internal uniform stress field. Our analysis, which is based on a carefully chosen conformal mapping function, clearly indicates that such an internal uniform stress distribution can be achieved independently of the action of the screw dislocation, which influences the shape of the inhomogeneity depending on its proximity to the dislocation. In fact, we find that when the screw dislocation is located far from the coated inhomogeneity, the corresponding material interfaces become two confocal ellipses as reported previously in the literature. A simple criterion for the convergence of the series in the conformal mapping function is established.     

A finite deformation theory of higher-order gradient crystal plasticity

For higher-order gradient crystal plasticity, a finite deformation formulation is presented. The theory does not deviate much from the conventional crystal plasticity theory. Only a back stress effect and additional differential equations for evolution of the geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) densities supplement the conventional theory within a non-work-conjugate framework in which there is no need to introduce higher-order microscopic stresses that would be work-conjugate to slip rate gradients. We discuss its connection to a work-conjugate type of finite deformation gradient crystal plasticity that is based on an assumption of the existence of higher-order stresses. Furthermore, a boundary-value problem for simple shear of a constrained thin strip is studied numerically, and some characteristic features of finite deformation are demonstrated through a comparison to a solution for the small deformation theory. As in a previous formulation for small deformation, the present formulation applies to the context of multiple and three-dimensional slip deformations.