Thomas Böhlke

The evolution of Hooke's law due to texture development in FCC polycrystals

Initially isotropic aggregates of crystalline grains show a texture-induced anisotropy of both their inelastic and elastic behavior when submitted to large inelastic deformations. The latter, however, is normally neglected, although experiments as well as numerical simulations clearly show a strong alteration of the elastic properties for certain materials. The main purpose of the work is to formulate a phenomenological model for the evolution of the elastic properties of cubic crystal aggregates. The effective elastic properties are determined by orientation averages of the local elasticity tensors. Arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic averages are compared. It can be shown that for cubic crystal aggregates all of these averages depend on the same irreducible fourth-order tensor, which represents the purely anisotropic portion of the effective elasticity tensor. Coupled equations for the flow rule and the evolution of the anisotropic part of the elasticity tensor are formulated. The flow rule is based on an anisotropic norm of the stress deviator defined by means of the elastic anisotropy. In the evolution equation for the anisotropic part of the elasticity tensor the direction of the rate of change depends only on the inelastic rate of deformation. The evolution equation is derived according to the theory of isotropic tensor functions. The transition from an elastically isotropic initial state to a (path-dependent) final anisotropic state is discussed for polycrystalline copper. The predictions of the model are compared with micro-macro simulations based on the Taylor Lin model and experimental data.

Equivalent plastic strain gradient enhancement of single crystal plasticity: theory and numerics

We propose a visco-plastic strain gradient plasticity theory for single crystals. The gradient enhancement is based on an equivalent plastic strain measure. Two physically equivalent variational settings for the problem are discussed: a direct formulation and an alternative version with an additional micromorphic-like field variable, which is coupled to the equivalent plastic strain by a Lagrange multiplier. The alternative formulation implies a significant reduction of nodal degrees of freedom. The local algorithm and element stiffness matrices of the finite-element discretization are discussed. Numerical examples illustrate the advantages of the alternative formulation in three-dimensional simulations of oligo-crystals. By means of the suggested formulation, complex boundary value problems of the proposed plastic strain gradient theory can be solved numerically very efficiently.

Partitioned fluid-solid coupling for cardiovascular blood flow: left-ventricular fluid mechanics.

We present a 3D code-coupling approach which has been specialized towards cardiovascular blood flow. For the first time, the prescribed geometry movement of the cardiovascular flow model KaHMo (Karlsruhe Heart Model) has been replaced by a myocardial composite model. Deformation is driven by fluid forces and myocardial response, i.e., both its contractile and constitutive behavior. Whereas the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation (ALE) of the Navier–Stokes equations is discretized by finite volumes (FVM), the solid mechanical finite elasticity equations are discretized by a finite element (FEM) approach. Taking advantage of specialized numerical solution strategies for non-matching fluid and solid domain meshes, an iterative data-exchange guarantees the interface equilibrium of the underlying governing equations. The focus of this work is on left-ventricular fluid–structure interaction based on patient-specific magnetic resonance imaging datasets. Multi-physical phenomena are described by temporal visualization and characteristic FSI numbers. The results gained show flow patterns that are in good agreement with previous observations. A deeper understanding of cavity deformation, blood flow, and their vital interaction can help to improve surgical treatment and clinical therapy planning.

Finite element simulation of metal forming operations with texture based material models

In this paper two different texture-dependent material models based on the Taylor assumption are discussed and applied to the simulation of deep drawing operations of aluminium. From the numerical point of view, large-scale FE computations based on the Taylor model are very time-intensive and storage-consuming if the crystallographic texture is approximated by several hundred discrete crystals. Furthermore, the Taylor model in its standard form, which is based on discrete crystal orientations, has the disadvantage that the anisotropy is significantly overestimated if only a small number of crystal orientations are used. We quantitatively analyse this overestimation of anisotropy and suggest two Taylor-type models which allow us to reduce the sharpness of the crystallite orientation distribution function related to single crystals or texture components. One model is an elastic-viscoplastic Taylor model based on discrete orientations. The sharpness is reduced by modelling the isotropic background texture by an isotropic material law. The other model is a rigid-viscoplastic material one, which is based on continuous model functions on the orientation space. This model allows for a direct incorporation of the scattering around an ideal texture component since the model contains the half-width as a microstructural parameter which can be biased. These models are used to compute yield stresses, R values and earing profiles. The predictions are compared with experimental data.

Modeling of deformation induced anisotropy in free-end torsion

Abstract The main purpose of this work is to develop a phenomenological model, which accounts for the evolution of the elastic and plastic properties of fcc polycrystals due to a crystallographic texture development and predicts the axial effects in torsion experiments. The anisotropic portion of the effective elasticity tensor is modeled by a growth law. The flow rule depends on the anisotropic part of the elasticity tensor. The normalized anisotropic part of the effective elasticity tensor is equal to the 4th-order coefficient of a tensorial Fourier expansion of the crystal orientation distribution function. Hence, the evolution of elastic and viscoplastic properties is modeled by an evolution equation for the 4th-order moment tensor of the orientation distribution function of an aggregate of cubic crystals. It is shown that the model is able to predict the plastic anisotropy that leads to the monotonic and cyclic Swift effect. The predictions are compared to those of the Taylor–Lin polycrystal model and to experimental data. In contrast to other phenomenological models proposed in the literature, the present model predicts the axial effects even if the initial state of the material is isotropic.

Homogenization of elastic properties of short-fiber reinforced composites based on measured microstructure data

Mechanical properties of short-fiber reinforced composites are crucially influenced by their microstructure. The microstructure itself is mainly governed by the manufacturing process like injection or compression molding. The main contribution of this paper lies in the homogenization of linear elastic properties using experimental microstructural information. For this purpose, the microstructure of injection-molded specimens made of polypropylene reinforced with 30wt.% of short glass fibers are analyzed through micro-computer tomography (μCT) measurements. Applying a recently developed segmentation algorithm, the spatial position, the orientation distribution and the length of the fibers are determined. This data is evaluated in terms of orientation tensors and length distribution, and is used within three mean field approaches: a self-consistent homogenization method, the interaction direct derivative estimate, which is based on the three-phase model, and a two-step bounding method. All methods account for the orientation, the length and the diameter distribution. The numerical results are compared to experimental tensile tests.

Equivalent Plastic Strain Gradient Plasticity with Grain Boundary Hardening and Comparison to Discrete Dislocation Dynamics

The gradient crystal plasticity framework of Wulfinghoff et al. (Wulfinghoff et al. 2013 Int. J. Plasticity 51, 33–46. (doi:10.1016/j.ijplas.2013.07.001)), incorporating an equivalent plastic strain γeq and grain boundary (GB) yielding, is extended with GB hardening. By comparison to averaged results from many discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) simulations of an aluminium-type tricrystal under tensile loading, the new hardening parameter of the continuum model is calibrated. Although the GBs in the discrete simulations are impenetrable, an infinite GB yield strength, corresponding to microhard GB conditions, is not applicable in the continuum model. A combination of a finite GB yield strength with an isotropic bulk Voce hardening relation alone also fails to model the plastic strain profiles obtained by DDD. Instead, a finite GB yield strength in combination with GB hardening depending on the equivalent plastic strain at the GBs is shown to give a better agreement to DDD results. The differences in the plastic strain profiles obtained in DDD simulations by using different orientations of the central grain could not be captured. This indicates that the misorientation-dependent elastic interaction of dislocations reaching over the GBs should also be included in the continuum model.

Large strain elasto-plasticity for diffuse interface models

Most solid-state phase transformations are accompanied by large deformations, stemming either from external load, transformation strains or plasticity. The consideration of such large deformations will affect the numerical treatment of such transformations. In this paper, we present a new scheme to embed large deformations in an explicit phase-field scheme and its implementation in the open-source framework OpenPhase. The suggested scheme combines the advantages of a spectral solver to calculate the mechanical boundary value problem in a small strain limit and an advection procedure to transport field variables over the calculation grid. Since the developed approach should be used for various sets of problems, e.g. simulations of thermodynamically driven phase transformations, the mechanic formulation is kept general. However, to ensure compatibility with phase-field methods using the concept of diffuse interface, the latter is treated with special care in the present work.

Isotropic orientation distributions of cubic crystals

The determination of the effective elastic properties of aggregates of crystalline grains with or without texture is a long standing problem. Presently, such averages are investigated and their anisotropy is quantified by an anisotropy tensor. The harmonic decomposition of fourth-order tensors is applied to both the elasticity tensors of single crystals with cubic symmetry as well as to the effective elasticity tensors of aggregates of cubic single crystals. It is shown that the anisotropic parts of the different estimates of the effective stiffnesses are irreducible. A set of four discrete crystal orientations is presented, which ensures the isotropy of the effective elastic properties, i.e., a vanishing of the harmonic parts of different averages.

Prediction of Texture Evolution in Rolled Sheet Metals by Using Homogenization Schemes

This work deals with comparing the prediction of the development of rolling textures by using a homogenization method that is based on a homogeneous reference material. The proposed homogenization scheme, assuming constant stress polarisations in each phase, has in a natural way the potential to model the transition between Taylor- and Sachs-type textures. Therefore, the stiffness ef the hemogeneous reference material has to be varied between infinitely stiff and infinitely compliant. In the present study, texture evolution during rolling is simulated, showing that the application of different comparison materials in the homogenization scheme leads to the development of different main texture characteristics (Cube, Cu, Bs, Goss) in the orientation distribution function. For efficiently carrying out the rolling simulations using the proposed method, the measured texture information of the bulk aluminum sample is representatively reduced by using a partitioning technique of the orientation space.