Thermodynamics of polycrystalline materials treated by the theory of mixtures with continuous diversity

The physics of polycrystalline materials is described via microscopic processes such as grain boundary migration, grain growth, grain rotation, polygonization (the bending and breaking of crystallites) and evolution of dislocation density. The importance of taking these processes into account lies in their influence on the macroscopic mechanical behaviour of the material. Constitutive equations to describe such phenomena have been proposed in the literature. The main result of this paper is to give a general and thermodynamically consistent approach for such constitutive equations. The framework of the Theory of Mixtures with Continuous Diversity (TMCD) is used. The inclusion of both orientation and grain-size distributions is presented in this paper for the first time. Their introduction requires the formulation of a new and general constitutive theory that is, therefore, given. The method of Lagrange multipliers used in the context of the entropy principle (Liu, Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal. 46, 131–148 (1972)) provides the restrictions of the second law of thermodynamics on the constitutive equations. The success of this work is that all the main results present in the literature can be incorporated in this framework.     

Discrete element simulation of shock wave propagation in polycrystalline copper

The implementation of the characteristic of compressive plasticity into the Discrete Element Code, DM2, while maintaining its quasi-molecular scheme, is described. The code is used to simulate the shock compression of polycrystalline copper at 3.35 and 11.0 GPa. The model polycrystal has a normal distribution of grain sizes, with mean diameter 14 μm, and three distinct grain orientations are permitted with respect to the shock direction; 〈1 0 0〉, 〈1 1 0〉, and 〈1 1 1〉. Particle velocity dispersion (PVD) is present in the shock-induced flow, attaining its maximum magnitude at the plastic wave rise. PVD normalised to the average particle velocity of and are yielded for the 3.35 and 11.0 GPa shocks, respectively, and are of the same order as those seen in the experiment. Non-planar elastic and plastic wave fronts are present, the distribution in shock front position increasing with propagation distance. The rate of increase of the spread in shock front positions is found to be significantly smaller than that seen in probabilistic calculations on nickel polycrystals, and this difference is attributed, in the main, to grain interaction. Reflections at free surfaces yield a region of tension near to the target free surface. Due to the dispersive nature of the shock particle velocity and the non-planarity of the shock front, the tensile pressure is distributed. This may have implications for the spall strength, which are discussed. Simulations reveal a transient shear stress distribution behind the shock front. Such a distribution agrees with that put forward by Lipkin and Asay to explain the quasi-elastic reloading phenomenon. Simulation of reloading shocks show that the shear stress distribution can give rise to quasi-elastic reloading on the grain scale.     

Modeling of textural anisotropy in granular materials with stochastic micro-polar hypoplasticity

The paper deals with a numerical analysis of the effect of textural anisotropy on the behaviour of cohesionless granular materials with consideration of shear localization. For a simulation of the mechanical behaviour of a granular material during a monotonic deformation path, an isotropic micro-polar hypoplastic constitutive model was used. To describe textural effects, spatially correlated random fields of the initial void ratio were subject to rotation against the horizontal axis. The 2D random fields were generated using a conditional rejection method. The results were compared with those obtained with an anisotropic micro-polar constitutive model for a uniform distribution of the initial void ratio. The calculations were carried out with an initially dense granular specimen during plane strain compression under constant lateral pressure.     

Stochastic analysis of a thermoelastic problem in functionally graded plates with uncertain material properties

The statistics (i.e., mean and variance) of temperature and thermal stress are analytically obtained in functionally graded material (FGM) plates with uncertainties in the thermal conductivity and coefficient of linear thermal expansion. These FGM plates are assumed to have arbitrary nonhomogeneous thermal and mechanical properties through the entire thickness of plate and are subjected to deterministic convective heating. The stochastic temperature and thermal stress fields are analysed by assuming the FGM plate is multilayered with distinct, random thermal conductivity and coefficient of linear thermal expansion in each layer. Vodicka’s method, which is a type of integral transform method, and a perturbation method are employed to obtain the analytical solutions for the statistics. The autocorrelation coefficients of each random property and cross-correlation coefficients between different random properties are expressed in exponential function forms as a non-homogeneous Markov random field of discrete space. Numerical calculations are performed for FGM plates composed of partially stabilised zirconia (PSZ) and austenitic stainless steel (SUS304), which have the largest dispersion of the random properties at the place where the volume fractions of the two constituent materials are both 0.5. The effects of the spatial change in material composition, thermal boundary condition and correlation coefficients on the standard deviations of the temperature and thermal stress are discussed.