THE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
AND
ADVISOR SOMNATH GHOSH, PROFESSOR
ANNOUNCE THE THESIS DEFENSE OF
Doctoral Candidate
Xiaohui Tu
Thursday, July 23, 2020
11 AM
Contact Elena Shichkova for access to this presentation.
“Developing Image-based Crystal Plasticity Models for Deformation and Crack Propagation in Polycrystalline 7000-series Aluminum Alloys”
This dissertation develops various models for image-based crystal plasticity FEM modeling of deformation and fracture mechanisms of 7000 series Aluminum alloys. The work begins with the development of preprocessors for micromechanical analysis of polycrystalline-polyphase microstructures of Al alloys, such as Al7075-T651. Starting from input data in the form of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) maps of orthogonal surfaces of experimental specimens, a robust methodology is created for generating 3D statistically equivalent virtual microstructures (3D-SEVMs) by a 3D stereological projection of 2D statistical distribution and correlation functions using a genetic algorithm (GA)-based numerical algorithm. Validation of the SEVM reconstruction process is conducted by comparing the SEVM statistics with morphological and crystallographic distributions of grains and precipitates from the experiments. Microstructure-based statistically equivalent representative volume element (M-SERVE) that corresponds to the minimum sized SERVE for convergence of morphological or crystallographic distributions are established using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) tests. Property-based statistically equivalent RVE (P-SERVE), defined as the smallest SERVE for predicting response functions (both effective and local), is estimated by conducting crystal plasticity finite-element simulations. Convergence plots of material response functions are used to assess the P-SERVE. These convergence analyses reveal that the controlling factor for the SERVE size is local extreme values of stress and strain, as well as the two-point correlation function of precipitates and precipitate-grain correlations.
A coupled crystal plasticity-phase field (CP-PF) model is next used for analyzing crack nucleation and propagation in polycrystalline-polyphase microstructures of metallic alloys. The model explicitly represents elastic and plastic anisotropies, tension-compression asymmetry, and the crack surface topology in the material. The phase-field model incorporates a regularization length-scale ???????????????? that controls the sharpness of the phase-field approximation to the discrete crack. Recently, to incorporate fracture energy anisotropy, the scalar fracture toughness ???????????????? is extended to an orientation-dependent tensor form and is represented in terms of crystallographic planes and their corresponding fracture energies. The development enables favorable crack growth on intrinsically weak planes in crystals. The coupled crystal plasticity-crack phase-field variational formulation is solved by a novel, wavelet-enriched adaptive FE framework. It has the unique capability of optimally resolving high gradients in the phase-field order parameter near the crack surface, and creating adaptive, multi-resolution wavelet-based hierarchical enrichment of the FE model.
Coupled deformation and crack nucleation-propagation simulations in polyphase-polycrystalline microstructures of Aluminum 7000 alloys are performed under monotonic (mode I, II) and cyclic loading conditions. As shown in these micromechanical analyses, the crack evolution in Aluminum 7000 alloys occurs in three stages, viz. crack initiation and propagation inside precipitates, the coalescence of precipitate cracks and crack propagation in the matrix. Surface precipitates play a dominant role in both the precipitate cracking and matrix cracking stages. Surface precipitates generally fail earlier compared to interior precipitates. Dominant cracks are formed by coalescence of precipitate pairs that include surface precipitates.