We present an investigation of the effect of deformation twinning on the visco-plastic response and stress localization in a low stacking fault energy twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel under uniaxial tension loading. The three-dimensional full field response was simulated using the fast Fourier transform method. The initial microstructure was obtained from a three dimensional serial section using electron backscatter diffraction. Twin volume fraction evolution upon strain was measured so the hardening parameters of the simple Voce model could be identified to fit both the stress-strain behavior and twinning activity. General trends of texture evolution were acceptably predicted including the typical sharpening and balance between the <111> fiber and the <100> fiber. Twinning was found to nucleate preferentially at grain boundaries although the predominant twin reorientation scheme did not allow spatial propagation to be captured. Hot spots in stress correlated with the boundaries of twinned voxel domains, which either impeded or enhanced twinning based on which deformation modes were active locally.

This work focuses on the major cause of life limiting behavior in Ni-based superalloys for high pressure and temperature turbine disks applications in low cycle fatigue. Specific ideas of local microstructure features, such as the role of as large as (ALA) grains, in promoting slip localization in directly measured 3D microstructures were tested with finite element method (FEM) simulations with crystal plasticity. Synthetic microstructures with experimentally determined microstructurally small fatigue crack weakest link features of ALA grains comprise the test cases. A Rene88 damage tolerant (R88DT) dataset, from electron backscatter diffraction, was used to instantiate approximately 1.5 million elements and 200 grains from FEM sensitivity studies. Changing mesh resolution minimally impacted global damage response, but local convergence required the maximum resolution. The present results help to quantify the deleterious impact of ALA grains in Ni-based superalloys to extend service life.

Abstract Low-symmetry crystals and polycrystals have anisotropic mechanical properties which, given better understanding of their deformation modes, could lead to development of next generation materials. Understanding how grains in a bulk polycrystal interact will guide and improve material modeling. Here, we show that tensile twins, in hexagonal close-packed metals, form where the macroscopic stress does not generate appropriate shear stress and vice versa. We use non-destructive high-energy X-ray diffraction microscopy to map local crystal orientations in three dimensions in a series of tensile strain states in a zirconium polycrystal. Twins and intragranular orientation variations are observed and it is found that deformation-induced rotations in neighboring grains are spatially correlated with many twins. We conclude that deformation twinning involves complex multigrain interactions which must be included in polycrystal plasticity models.

The study of fatigue in metals, and fatigue initiation specifically, lends itself to analysis via an emerging set of characterization and modeling tools that describe polycrystals on the meso- or microstructural length scale. These include three-dimensional characterization techniques, elastic anisotropic and visco-plastic stress models, new approaches to the statistical description of stress and strain distributions, synthetic microstructure modeling, and improved tools for manipulating the large datasets generated. A specific example of analysis in both 2D and 3D of fatigue cracks in a nickel-based superalloy is given where all the cracks are effectively coincident with coherent twin boundaries. A spectral method is used to analyze the stress state based on a fully anisotropic elastic calculation. The results indicate that, although a high resolved shear stress is associated with the locations of the observed cracks, the length of the trace of the twin boundary is more strongly correlated with crack formation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electron backscatter diffraction analysis was employed to compute the closest orientation relationship and the distribution of intervariant boundary character in a lath martensitic microstructure. The misorientations were close to the Kurdjumov-Sachs orientation relationship. The intervariant crystallographic plane distribution exhibited a relatively high anisotropy with a tendency for the lath interfaces to terminate on (110) planes. This results from the crystallographic constraints associated with the shear transformation rather than a low energy interface configuration. The lath martensite habit plane was determined to be mostly (110) or near (110). The relative populations of boundaries with [111] and [110] misorientations were greater than other high index misorientations, mostly characterized as (110) symmetric tilt and (110) twist boundary types, respectively. Analysis with homology metrics of the connectivity in the lath martensitic microstructure revealed the connectivity dominated by population of misorientation angle and boundary plane type. (C) 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A numerical method based on Fast Fourier Transforms to compute the thermoelastic response of heterogeneous materials is presented and validated by comparison with analytical solutions of the Eshelby inclusion problem. Spherical and cylindrical, homogeneous and inhomogeneous inclusion configurations are used to validate the results of the proposed spectral method. Dependencies of the numerical solutions on homogeneity, geometry and resolution are also explored, and the differences with respect to known analytical solutions are quantified and discussed. In the case of homogeneous inclusions, the proposed numerical method is direct, i.e. does not require iteration. Using enough resolution, the micromechanical fields predicted for these simple geometries are shown to be in good agreement with the analytical results. The specific way in which inclusions are voxelized is also explored, and its effect on local fields near interfaces is assessed.

Electron backscatter diffraction analysis was employed to compute the closest orientation relationship and the distribution of intervariant boundary character in a lath martensitic microstructure. The misorientations were close to the Kurdjumov-Sachs orientation relationship. The intervariant crystallographic plane distribution exhibited a relatively high anisotropy with a tendency for the lath interfaces to terminate on (110) planes. This results from the crystallographic constraints associated with the shear transformation rather than a low energy interface configuration. The lath martensite habit plane was determined to be mostly (110) or near (110). The relative populations of boundaries with [111] and [110] misorientations were greater than other high index misorientations, mostly characterized as (110) symmetric tilt and (110) twist boundary types, respectively. Analysis with homology metrics of the connectivity in the lath martensitic microstructure revealed the connectivity dominated by population of misorientation angle and boundary plane type. (C) 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.