High-resolution numerical-experimental comparison of heterogeneous slip activity in quasi-2D ferrite sheets

TL;DR

This study combines high-resolution experiments and simulations to analyze how microstructural heterogeneity influences slip activity in quasi-2D ferrite sheets, revealing the importance of heterogeneity in modeling deformation.

Contribution

It introduces a quasi-2D experimental-numerical framework for detailed comparison of microstructure deformation, incorporating stochastic heterogeneity into crystal plasticity models.

Findings

Heterogeneity is crucial for accurate deformation modeling.

The framework enables detailed slip system analysis.

Simulations with heterogeneity match experimental results better.

Abstract

The role of heterogeneity in the plastic flow of thin ferrite specimens is investigated in this study. This is done through a recently introduced quasi-2D experimental-numerical framework that allows for a quantitative comparison of the deformation fields of metal microstructures between experiments and simulations at a high level of detail and complexity. The method exploits samples that are locally ultra-thin ("2D") and hence have a practically uniform microstructure through their thickness. This allows testing more complex loading conditions compared to uniaxial micromechanical experiments while avoiding the complexity of an unknown subsurface microstructure, which limits comparisons between experiments and simulations in traditional integrated approaches at the level of the polycrystalline microstructure. The present approach enables to study the effect of microstructural features such as grain boundaries. To study the role of stochastic fluctuations, a constitutive model is employed which introduces random heterogeneity into a crystal plasticity model. A detailed analysis of the simulations is performed at the level of individual slip systems. Since both experimental and numerical results are susceptible to stochastic fluctuations, the outcomes of many simulations are compared to the experimentally obtained result. This comparison allows us to determine how a single experiment relates to an ensemble of simulations. Additionally, results obtained with a conventional crystal plasticity model are considered. The analysis reveals that the heterogeneity in the plasticity model is essential for accurately capturing the deformation mechanisms.