A dislocation density based crystal plasticity finite element model: Application to a two-phase polycrystalline HCP/BCC composites

We present a multiscale model for anisotropic, elasto-plastic, rate- and temperature-sensitive deformation of polycrystalline aggregates to large plastic strains. The model accounts for a dislocation-based hardening law for multiple slip modes and links a single-crystal to a polycrystalline response using a crystal plasticity finite element based homogenization. It is capable of predicting local stress and strain fields based on evolving microstructure including the explicit evolution of dislocation density and crystallographic grain reorientation. We apply the model to simulate monotonic mechanical response of a hexagonal close-packed metal, zirconium (Zr), and a body-centered cubic metal, niobium (Nb), and study the texture evolution and deformation mechanisms in a two-phase Zr/Nb layered composite under severe plastic deformation. The model predicts well the texture in both co-deforming phases to very large plastic strains. In addition, it offers insights into the active slip systems underlying texture evolution, indicating that the observed textures develop by a combination of prismatic, pyramidal, and anomalous basal slip in Zr and primarily {110}〈111〉 slip and secondly {112}〈111〉 slip in Nb.     

Notch-root plastic response by temperature measurement

It is an experimental fact that the majority of the irreversible work of plastic deformation in metals is converted to heat. Under adiabatic conditions the spatial distribution of heating is indicative of the spatial distribution of plastic work. Tiny thermocouples welded directly to a metal surface were found to provide adequate measurement speed and sensitivity to detect the temperature change associated with plastic deformation. An array of thermocouples was used with some success in determining plastic-zone size. The heating response was used to study notch-root plastic deformation following overloads and following various post-overload heat treatments. The notch-root plastic response was correlated directly with the notch-root residual-stress level. The degree of stress relief as a function of time and temperature found in the notched members studied agrees well with predictions made using the Larson-Miller parameter and relaxation data on other steels. The deformation response in notched-member tests following stress relief is in qualitative agreement with that predicted by mechanics analysis of cracked bodies done by others.     

晶体塑性变形离散滑移模型及有限元分析

基于韧性单晶体实验现象，建立了描述晶体塑性变形的离散滑移模型．该模型的主要特点是：晶体滑移变形在宏观上是不均匀的，滑移带的分布是离散的．利用晶体塑性理论对模型进行了有限变形有限元分析，计算结果揭示了晶体滑移的离散行为，模拟的应力 应变曲线与实验曲线相吻合     

A class of exact solutions of the ideal plasticity equations

A class of exact solutions is formulated for the ideal plasticity equations in the case of plane deformation. The solutions describe the plastic state of various wedges, notched half-planes, and domains in the form of funnels produced by detonation, the plastic state of domains having a horn configuration, etc. Many of the solutions have natural boundaries comprising envelopes of slip lines. The equations for the boundaries, slip lines, and stresses are presented in explicit form.     

Randomness and slip avalanches in gradient plasticity

While localization of deformation at macroscopic scales has been documented and carefully characterized long ago, it is only recently that systematic experimental investigations have demonstrated that plastic flow of crystalline solids on mesoscopic scales proceeds in a strongly heterogenous and intermittent manner. In fact, deformation is characterized by intermittent bursts (‘slip avalanches’) the sizes of which obey power-law statistics. In the spatial domain, these avalanches produce characteristic deformation patterns in the form of slip lines and slip bands. Unlike to the case of macroscopic localization where gradient plasticity can capture the width and spacing of shear bands in the softening regime of the stress–strain graph, this type of mesoscopically jerky like localized plastic flow is observed in spite of a globally convex stress–strain relationship and may not be captured by standard deterministic continuum modelling. We thus propose a generalized constitutive model which includes both second-order strain gradients and randomness in the local stress–strain relationship. These features are related to the internal stresses which govern dislocation motion on microscopic scales. It is shown that the model can successfully describe experimental observations on slip avalanches as well as the associated surface morphology characteristics.     

Plasticity field adjacent to faces of asperities on a rotating roll after initial indentation into a half-space

The plastic deformation field near the horizontal surface of a half space of perfectly plastic material associated with an indenting rotating rigid tooth is studied using slip line theory. The tooth is one of many on a roll surface and indents first into the half-space material and then rotates about the roll center. A slip line field is proposed for the deforming plastic region and a solution scheme is outlined. The emphasis is on determining the shape of the deforming region, especially that of the free surface. The study has a potential application in roughness transfer in metal forming processing.     

Effect of secondary orientation on notch-tip plasticity in superalloy single crystals

Numerical and experimental evolutions of slip fields in notched Ni-Base Single Crystal superalloy tensile specimens are presented as a function of secondary crystallographic orientation. The numerical predictions based on three-dimensional anisotropic elasticity and crystal plasticity are compared with experimental observations. The results illustrate the strong dependence of the slip patterns and the plastic zone size and shape on the secondary orientation of notches, which can have important consequences on crack initiation. Specific orientations or non-symmetric notch geometries lead to non-symmetric patterns on both sides of the sample. The computations show that strongly different plastic zones are expected in the core of the sample and at free surfaces. The ability of the anisotropic elastic model to anticipate the plastic domains, based on identifying dominant slip systems, is confirmed by the crystal plasticity computations, at low load levels. An important observation is that kink shear banding is a real deformation mode operating at crack tips and notches in high strength nickel-based single crystal superalloys for specific orientations.     

Dynamic strain aging and related instabilities: experimental,theoretical and numerical aspects

Experimental data from uniaxial tensile tests on smooth and notched specimens of aluminium alloy 5083-H116 show that the material exhibits negative strain-rate sensitivity for strain rates within a certain range. The negative strain-rate dependence, which is attributed to dynamic strain aging, leads to serrated stress–strain curves, discontinuous plastic flow and propagating deformation bands during plastic straining (also denoted as the Portevin–Le Chatelier effect). Band analysis and linear perturbation analysis are performed using simple elastic-viscoplastic constitutive equations that include negative strain-rate sensitivity in a simplified manner. The negative strain-rate sensitivity allows for jumps in the plastic strain rate, which in turn permits the existence of localisation bands for the elastic-viscoplastic model. The simple elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model has been implemented in LS-DYNA, and non-linear finite element simulations of smooth and notched tensile test specimens are performed, allowing more detailed investigations into the effects of the negative strain-rate sensitivity on the material's behaviour.     

A perturbation analysis of the unstable plastic flow pattern evolution in an aluminum alloy

In the tensile loading of sheet metals made from some polycrystalline aluminum alloys, a single deformation band appears inclined to the elongation axis in the early stage of deformation, and symmetric double bands are observed in the later stage. This evolution of spatial characteristics of such an unstable plastic flow pattern in a polycrystalline aluminum alloy has been analyzed by a perturbation method. A small number of slip modes are taken to describe the tensile strain. A rate-dependent constitutive equation is used for each slip mode to account for the interaction between dislocations and solute atoms in dynamic strain aging. Unconstrained and constrained models are used to impose appropriate loading conditions at the early and later deformation stages, respectively. Both plane-strain and plane-stress cases are considered. It is found out that the change of boundary conditions and material inhomogeneity during the course of plastic deformation are closely related to the evolution of spatial characteristics of shear band (the Portevin–Le Chatelier band) patterns observed in experiments.     

Chernov–Luders and Portevin–Le Chatelier deformations in active deformable media of different nature

The development of macroscopic inhomogeneities in the form of Chernov–Luders bands and serrated deformation bands (Portevin–Le Chatelier effect) in plastic metal flow is studied. For these two cases, regularities in the development of deformation inhomogeneity were established and the kinetics of motion of the fronts of Chernov–Luders bands and serrated deformation bands was studied. It is shown that the Chernov–Luders fronts and the serrated Portevin–Le Chatelier deformation can be considered as macroscopic autowave switching and excitation processes, respectively, in deformable media of different nature.     

Plastic deformation and latent strain energy in a polycrystalline aluminum model

A crystalline aggregate model of aluminum is evaluated for nearly uniaxial stressing. Progression of crystallographic slip, a hysteresis effect in a strain cycle, and heat generated and latent strain energy stored during plastic deformation are investigated. Close correspondence is found between calculated and experimental results for percentages of heat and latent energy. A proof is included that total mechanical energy dissipated is absolutely less than macroscopic plastic work for all paths.     

Correlation of notch bar, metal overturn and forming data involving effective plastic strain and stress triaxiality ratio

Starting with a macrodamage parameter that relates the effective plastic strain and exponential function of stress triaxiality, a simple expression is obtained that is reminiscent of those used by other in void growth prediction. Good correlations are obtained for data on notched circular bar and sheet metal forming in addition to the problem where the triaxial stress state reversed sign. The results are affected by the fabrication condition. What has been provided is a simple means of ranking the workability of metal products that undergo plastic deformation. Limits are established in accordance with the onset of macrocracking.     

Phase-field slip-line theory of plasticity

A variational approach to determine the deformation of an ideally plastic substance is proposed by solving a sequence of energy minimization problems under proper conditions to account for the irreversible character of plasticity. The flow is driven by the local transformation of elastic strain energy into plastic work on slip surfaces, once that a certain energetic barrier for slip activation has been overcome. The distinction of the elastic strain energy into spherical and deviatoric parts is used to incorporate in the model the idea of von Mises plasticity and isochoric plastic strain. This is a “phase field model” because the matching condition at the slip interfaces is substituted by the evolution of an auxiliary phase field that, similar to a damage field, is unitary on the elastic phase and null on the yielded phase. The slip lines diffuse in bands, whose width depends upon a material length-scale parameter.Numerical experiments on representative problems in plane strain give solutions with noteworthy similarities with the results from classical slip-line field theory, but the proposed model is much richer because, accounting for elastic deformations, it can describe the formation of slip bands at the local level, which can nucleate, propagate, widen and diffuse by varying the boundary conditions. In particular, the solution for a long pipe under internal pressure is very different from the one obtainable from the classical macroscopic theory of plasticity. For this case, the location of the plastic bands may be an insight to explain the premature failures that are sometimes encountered during the manufacturing process. This practical example enhances the importance of this new theory based on the mathematical sciences.     

Plastic Strain Mapping with Sub-micron Resolution Using Digital Image Correlation

Digital image correlation (DIC) of images obtained using scanning electron microscopy has been used to study, quantitatively, the plastic deformation of stainless steel at the microstructural scale. An artificial speckle pattern was generated by the remodelling of a deposited gold layer. A new experimental setup was shown to accelerate the remodelling process and promote the formation of finer nano-scale speckles with sizes ranging 30 nm to 150 nm and of similar spacing. The effects of surface preparation on speckle morphology are discussed. The high density of speckles enabled displacement mapping with resolution of one displacement vector each 0.2?×?0.2 μm² of surface area. It is shown that sub-micron resolution is necessary to capture the plastic deformation associated with the formation of slip bands in stainless steel, which are an important component of the deformation of these materials at the microscale. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used to reconstruct the surface grain boundaries and enabled these deformation features to be linked to the microstructure.     

Detection of plastic deformation patterns in a binary aluminum alloy

A whole-field, in-plane strain-mapping technique is evaluated for in situ monitoring of plastic deformation patterns in aluminum sheet metals. This technique is built on the recent developments in digital image correlation and improved data reduction procedures. The sensitivity and accuracy of the measured local strain variations are critically examined in terms of random and systematic experimental errors, free-surface roughening due to large plastic deformation and microscopic surface grain deformation. Tensile specimens made from an annealed Al−Mg alloy sheet metal are subjected to a large plastic and macroscopically uniform deformation, and no visible deformation patterns can be identified by direct surface observation. Using an incremental strain-mapping approach, the existence of nonstationary deformation bands in the annealed Al−Mg alloy is uncovered. The developed technique can be used to study the formation and evolution of plastic deformation patterns and their effect on tensile ductility, formability and surface finish of sheet metals.     

Crystal plasticity analysis of dislocation emission from micro voids

Slip deformation in the vicinity of a micro void in metal crystals is analyzed by a crystal plasticity technique, and the geometrically necessary dislocations, which accompany the gradient of plastic shear strain on slip systems, are evaluated. Aggregates of dislocation segments on pairs of slip systems that have the same slip directions but different slip planes exhibit a rhombus-shaped structure, and the structure is shown to be equivalent to prismatic dislocation loops of the interstitial type. Material transport and growth of voids are discussed in terms of GN dislocations.     

Role of discrete intra-granular slip bands on the strain-hardening of polycrystals

This work investigates a new micromechanical modeling of polycrystal plasticity, accounting slip bands for physical plastic heterogeneities considered as periodically distributed within grains. These intra-granular plastic heterogeneities are modeled by parallel flat ellipsoidal sub-domains, each of them may have a distinct uniform plastic slip. To capture the morphology of slip bands occurring in plastically deforming polycrystals, these interacting sub-domains are considered as oblate spheroids periodically distributed and constrained by spherical grain boundaries. In this paper, we focus the study on the influences of internal length scale parameters related to grain size, spatial period and thickness of slip bands on the overall material’s behavior. In a first part, the Gibbs free energy accounting for elastic interactions between plastic heterogeneities is calculated thanks to the Green function’s method in the case of an isolated spherical grain with plastic strain occurring only in slip bands embedded in an infinite elastic matrix. In a second part, the influence of discrete periodic distributions of intra-granular slip bands on the polycrystal’s behavior is investigated considering an aggregate with random crystallographic orientations. When the spatial period of slip bands is on the same order as the grain radius, the polycrystal’s mechanical behavior is found strongly dependent on the ratio between the spatial period of slip bands and the grain size, as well as the ratio between the slip band thickness and the grain size, which cannot be captured by classic length scale independent Eshelby-based micromechanics.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF SYMMETRICAL TILT GRAIN BOUNDARIES ON THE PLASTIC DEFORMATION

A numerical investigation on the simple polycrystals containing threesymmetrical tilt grain boundaries(GBs)is carried out within the framework of crystalplasticity which precisely considers the finite deformation and finite lattice rotation aswell as elastic anisotropy.The calculated results show that the slip geometry and theredistribution of stresses arising from the anisotropy and boundary constraint play animportant role in the plastic deformation in the simple polycrystals.The stress levelalong GB is sensitive to the load level and misorientation,and the stresses along GB aredistributed nonuniformly.The GB may exhibit a softening or strengthening feature,which depends on the misorientation angle.The localized deformation bands usuallydevelop accompanying the GB plastic deformation,the impingement of the localizedband on the GB may result in another localized deformation band.The yield stresseswith different misorientation angles are favorably compared with the experimentalresults.     

Interaction between phase transformations and dislocations at the nanoscale. Part 1. General phase field approach

Thermodynamically consistent, three-dimensional (3D) phase field approach (PFA) for coupled multivariant martensitic transformations (PTs), including cyclic PTs, variant–variant transformations (i.e., twinning), and dislocation evolution is developed at large strains. One of our key points is in the justification of the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into elastic, transformational, and plastic parts. The plastic part includes four mechanisms: dislocation motion in martensite along slip systems of martensite and slip systems of austenite inherited during PT and dislocation motion in austenite along slip systems of austenite and slip systems of martensite inherited during reverse PT. The plastic part of the velocity gradient for all these mechanisms is defined in the crystal lattice of the austenite utilizing just slip systems of austenite and inherited slip systems of martensite, and just two corresponding types of order parameters. The explicit expressions for the Helmholtz free energy and the transformation and plastic deformation gradients are presented to satisfy the formulated conditions related to homogeneous thermodynamic equilibrium states of crystal lattice and their instabilities. In particular, they result in a constant (i.e., stress- and temperature-independent) transformation deformation gradient and Burgers vectors. Thermodynamic treatment resulted in the determination of the driving forces for change of the order parameters for PTs and dislocations. It also determined the boundary conditions for the order parameters that include a variation of the surface energy during PT and exit of dislocations. Ginzburg–Landau equations for dislocations include variation of properties during PTs, which in turn produces additional contributions from dislocations to the Ginzburg–Landau equations for PTs. A complete system of coupled PFA and mechanics equations is presented. A similar theory can be developed for PFA to dislocations and other PTs, like reconstructive PTs and diffusive PTs described by the Cahn–Hilliard equation, as well as twinning and grain boundaries evolution.     

Cylindrical void in a rigid-ideally plastic single crystal III: Hexagonal close-packed crystal

The analytical solution is derived for the plane strain stress field around a cylindrical void in a hexagonal close-packed single crystal with three in-plane slip systems oriented at the angle π/3 with respect to one another. The critical resolved shear stress on each slip system is assumed to be equal. The crystal is loaded by both internal pressure and a far-field equibiaxial compressive stress. The deformation field takes the form of angular sectors, called slip sectors, within which only one slip system is active; the boundaries between different sectors are radial lines. The stress fields are derived by enforcing equilibrium and a rigid, ideally plastic constitutive relationship, in the spirit of anisotropic slip line theory. The results show that each slip sector is divided into smaller regions denoted as stress sectors and the stress state valid within each stress sector is derived. It is shown that stresses are unique and are continuous within stress sectors and across stress sector boundaries, but the gradient of stresses is not continuous across the boundaries between stress sectors. The solution shows self-similarity in that the stresses over the entire domain can be determined from the stresses within a small region adjacent to the void by invoking certain scaling and symmetry properties. In addition, the stress state exhibits periodicity along logarithmic spirals which emanate from the void. The results predict that the mean value of in-plane pressure required to activate plastic deformation around a void in a single crystal can be higher than that necessary for a void in an isotropic material and is sensitive to the orientation of the slip systems relative to the void.