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Structural aluminum alloys are often less-than ideal materials for studying sub-grain strain gradients via EBSD, at typical resolution settings. Sharply defined slip bands are not generally observed due to cross-slip, and secondphase particles formed during solidification of work-hardened alloys provide obstacles that disrupt potential structure development, leading to what can seem like random distributions of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs). This study considers the roles of length-scale and second-phase particles in sub-grain distributions of AA6016-T4 following deformation. Second-phase particles are shown to play a stronger role than grain boundaries (GBs) in local GND accumulations. The net Burgers vector is used to show the transition from crystallographic-level slip to macro-scale slip as length scale increases, with a corresponding transition in the GND vs. step size graph. A strain gradient crystal plasticity model is applied to assess predictability of the observations. Real 3D structures were extracted, via serial sectioning, following application of different strain paths. Predicted GND and total dislocation evolution closely follows observed values. The model is then used to study the relative contributions of GBs and second-phase particles to GND localization, leading to the conclusion that second-phase particles must be included in the model to reflect observed behavior.
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Phase field modeling of coupled crystal plasticity and deformation twinning in polycrystals with monolithic and splitting solvers
Abstract For some polycrystalline materials such as austenitic stainless steel, magnesium, TATB, and HMX, twinning is a crucial deformation mechanism when the dislocation slip alone is not enough to accommodate the applied strain. To predict this coupling effect between crystal plasticity and deformation twinning, we introduce a mathematical model and the corresponding monolithic and operator splitting solvers that couple the crystal plasticity material model with a phase field twining model such that the twinning nucleation and propagation can be captured via an implicit function. While a phase field order parameter is introduced to quantify the twinning induced shear strain and corresponding crystal reorientation, the evolution of the order parameter is driven by the resolved shear stress on the twinning system. To avoid introducing an additional set of slip systems for dislocation slip within the twinning region, we introduce a Lie algebra averaging technique to determine the Schmid tensor throughout the twinning transformation. Three different numerical schemes are proposed to solve the coupled problem, including a monolithic scheme, an alternating minimization scheme, and an operator splitting scheme. Three numerical examples are utilized to demonstrate the capability of the proposed model, as well as the accuracy and computational cost of the solvers.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1846875
- PAR ID:
- 10454565
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
- Volume:
- 122
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0029-5981
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1167-1189
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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