Remi Philippe Michel Dingreville

Hybrid Monte Carlo Simulation of Stress-Induced Texture Evolution with Inelastic Effects

A hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) approach is employed to quantify the influence of inelastic deformation on the microstructural evolution of polycrystalline materials. This approach couples a time explicit material point method (MPM) for deformation with a calibrated Monte Carlo model for grain boundary motion. A rate-independent crystal plasticity model is implemented to account for localized plastic deformations in polycrystals. The dislocation energy difference between grains provides an additional driving force for texture evolution. This plastic driving force is then brought into a MC paradigm via parametric links between MC and sharp-interface (SI) kinetic models. The MC algorithm is implemented in a parallelized setting using a checkerboard updating scheme. As expected, plastic loading favors texture evolution for grains that have a bigger Schmid factor with respect to the loading direction, and these are the grains most easily removed by grain boundary motion. A macroscopic equation is developed to predict such texture evolution.

LDRD final report : mesoscale modeling of dynamic loading of heterogeneous materials.

Material response to dynamic loading is often dominated by microstructure (grain structure, porosity, inclusions, defects). An example critically important to Sandias mission is dynamic strength of polycrystalline metals where heterogeneities lead to localization of deformation and loss of shear strength. Microstructural effects are of broad importance to the scientific community and several institutions within DoD and DOE; however, current models rely on inaccurate assumptions about mechanisms at the sub-continuum or mesoscale. Consequently, there is a critical need for accurate and robust methods for modeling heterogeneous material response at this lower length scale. This report summarizes work performed as part of an LDRD effort (FY11 to FY13; project number 151364) to meet these needs.

Microstructure-based approach for predicting crack initiation and early growth in metals.

Fatigue cracking in metals has been and is an area of great importance to the science and technology of structural materials for quite some time. The earliest stages of fatigue crack nucleation and growth are dominated by the microstructure and yet few models are able to predict the fatigue behavior during these stages because of a lack of microstructural physics in the models. This program has developed several new simulation tools to increase the microstructural physics available for fatigue prediction. In addition, this program has extended and developed microscale experimental methods to allow the validation of new microstructural models for deformation in metals. We have applied these developments to fatigue experiments in metals where the microstructure has been intentionally varied.