Photoelasticity in polycrystalline aggregates

A theory for the photoelastic behaviour of transparent polycrystalline aggregates consisting of randomly oriented anisotropic crystallites has been developed. Such an aggregate is isotropic but it becomes birefringent under the influence of a uniaxial load. The photoelastic constants of the aggregate are given by the components of the spatial average of the photoelastic tensor of the single crystal, and are worked out by assuming either the strain to be continuous (Voigt approximation) or the stress to be continuous (Reuss approximation). The components of the average photoelastic tensor are very different for these two limits. The elastic and the photoelastic constants of alkali halide aggregates have been evaluated for both the stress continuity and the strain continuity conditions. The maximum variation of the elastic constants in going from the Voigt to the Reuss condition is 50 per cent while the photoelastic birefringence can vary by as much as 300 per cent in alkali halides. In the case of KI and rubidium halides even the sign of the photoelastic birefringence is different for the two limits.     

Characterization of a class of polycrystals whose effective elastic bulk moduli can be exactly determinedCaractérisation d'une classe de polycristaux dont les modules de compression isotrope effectifs peuvent exactement être déterminés

Necessary and sufficient conditions are established for the stress response of a linearly elastic material to an isotropic stain to be hydrostatic. In the 3D case, these conditions are satisfied not only by the isotropic and cubic materials but also by all other anisotropic materials provided appropriate restrictions are imposed. In the 2D case, only the isotropic and square materials have an isotropic stress response to an isotropic strain. Using a uniform field argument, the elastic bulk modulus of a polycrystal consisting of monocrystals compatible with the established conditions is shown to equal that of any constituent monocrystal. Thus, Hill's relevant result about a polycrystal composed of cubic monocrystals is generalized. To cite this article: Q.-C. He, C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).     

Mesodynamics of shock waves in a polycrystalline metal

Simulation of the shock compression of polycrystalline α-iron at the mesoscale has been carried out using a two-dimensional, quasi-MD code. Grains of about 15 μm are randomly distributed to simulate the polycrystal. Results show the presence of a particle velocity dispersion comparable to the level observed experimentally. Other unique features include an eddy-like velocity field (meso rotation) and chaotic wave fronts. This paper was based on work that was presented at the 3rd international symposium on interdisciplinary shock wave research, Canberra, Australia, 1–3, March 2006.     

Ultrasonic backscattering in polycrystals with elongated single phase and duplex microstructures

An analytical solution for a three dimensional integral representation of the backscattering (BS) coefficient in polycrystals with elongated (generally ellipsoidal) grains is obtained; it is a natural generalization of the known explicit result for the BS coefficient in polycrystals with spherical grains. New insights into the dependence of the BS signal on frequency and averaged ellipsoidal grain radii are obtained. In particular it has been shown that the dominant factor for the backscattering is the averaged interaction length of the ellipsoidal grain in the direction of wave propagation, instead of the ellipsoidal cross-section. The theory was applied to a simplified model of Ti alloy duplex microstructure and was compared with experiment. For the experimental data analysis directional backscattering ratios are introduced and shown to be advantageous for characterization of duplex elongated microstructures/microtextures. In addition to the geometrical parameters of the elongated microtextures, the BS directional ratios depend on the newly introduced nondimensional material parameter q. The parameter q exhibits the relative contribution of the second phase (crystallites) to the backscattering signal, the effect of which is measurable and important. Comparison of the model with experiment shows there is a significant advantage in using the directional ratios of backscattering coefficients for data analysis.     

Stationary variational estimates for the effective response and field fluctuations in nonlinear composites

This paper presents a variational method for estimating the effective constitutive response of composite materials with nonlinear constitutive behavior. The method is based on a stationary variational principle for the macroscopic potential in terms of the corresponding potential of a linear comparison composite (LCC) whose properties are the trial fields in the variational principle. When used in combination with estimates for the LCC that are exact to second order in the heterogeneity contrast, the resulting estimates for the nonlinear composite are also guaranteed to be exact to second-order in the contrast. In addition, the new method allows full optimization with respect to the properties of the LCC, leading to estimates that are fully stationary and exhibit no duality gaps. As a result, the effective response and field statistics of the nonlinear composite can be estimated directly from the appropriately optimized linear comparison composite. By way of illustration, the method is applied to a porous, isotropic, power-law material, and the results are found to compare favorably with earlier bounds and estimates. However, the basic ideas of the method are expected to work for broad classes of composites materials, whose effective response can be given appropriate variational representations, including more general elasto-plastic and soft hyperelastic composites and polycrystals.     

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.     

Fast texture updates in fcc polycrystal plasticity based on a linear active-set-estimate of the lattice spin

The paper presents a framework for a fast computational estimate of the texture evolution in fcc polycrystals. The underlying basis is a Taylor-type approach of rigid-plasticity for fcc crystals, where the decision of slip activity is based on a purely geometric argument in terms of the rate of total deformation. This approach allows a purely kinematic estimate of the texture evolution completely independent of the hardening response of the single crystal grains. We show that such a geometric estimate of the orientation microstructure provides very good approximations when compared with Taylor-type models of rigid viscoplasticity or elasto-plasticity of fcc crystals. It is shown for several deformation modes of polycrystalline aggregates that the geometric approach predicts the texture evolution very well in the range of large strains. In contrast to standard approaches for the analysis of texture, the proposed new method is extremely robust and very fast even for a high number of discrete grain orientations. As a consequence, such an approach provides a perfect base for large scale computations of anisotropy development in polycrystals.     

Hill–Mandel condition and bounds on lower symmetry elastic crystals

Despite advances in contemporary micromechanics, there is a void in the literature on a versatile method for estimating the effective properties of polycrystals comprising of highly anisotropic single crystals belonging to lower symmetry class. Basing on variational principles in elasticity and the Hill–Mandel homogenization condition, we propose a versatile methodology to fill this void. It is demonstrated that the bounds obtained using the Hill–Mandel condition are tighter than the Voigt and Reuss [1], [2] bounds, the Hashin–Shtrikman [3] bounds as well as a recently proposed self-consistent estimate by Kube and Arguelles [4] even for polycrystals with highly anisotropic single crystals.     

Crystals and Polycrystals in ℝ n : Lower Semicontinuity and Existence

We give a simple, new algebraic condition, directional control, which is sufficient for lower semicontinuity of surface energy and which is also very easy to check in practice, and we discuss and relate several other sufficient conditions. We establish an existence theorem for surface energy minimizers. We also show how to apply these results to minimal partitions, immiscible fluids (with and without gravity), soap bubble clusters, and curvature flow of polycrystals. In some cases, we use our results to give short, alternative proofs of important existence results in the literature. Our techniques are representative of those which could be used for many variational problems, both static and dynamic, involving interfaces. Our setting is that of the sets of finite perimeter and integral currents of geometric measure theory.