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The microstructural origins of highly localized elastic strain concentrations in polycrystalline microstructures under monotonic loading are studied using grain-scale, in situ digital image correlation and crystal plasticity finite element method. It is shown that the locations of exceptionally high elastic strain concentrations in the microstructure depend on particular crystallographic and morphological orientations of grains and less so on crystalline details of their local neighborhood. Based on these results, we discuss how topological and crystallographic features of annealing twin boundaries can increase the likelihood of slip band initiation throughout the microstructure of polycrystalline Ni-base superalloys.

The role of microstructure and strain rate on the development of geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) density in polycrystalline copper subjected to compression is assessed via crystal plasticity modelling and electron microscopy. Micropolar crystal plasticity finite element (MP-CPFE) simulations show that GND density is strongly dependent on crystal orientation, with the highest values in grains with a direction parallel to the compression axis. Experimental analysis shows that this relationship breaks down and demonstrates that orientation is only one of many microstructural features that contributes to dislocation density evolution. Texture development as a function of strain rate is also considered, and it is found that the commonly observed compression texture is delocalized from that pole at high strain rate. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of the role of grain boundaries in GND density evolution highlights their role as strong dislocation sources.

In this work, we investigate the relationship between an intense slip band (ISB) and the zone of large lattice rotations that forms ahead of the tip of the ISB. We develop a crystal plasticity finite element model of a discrete ISB lying within an oligocrystalline assembly and calculate the local crystalline stress and lattice rotation fields generated by the ISB. The calculations demonstrate that, first, a region of severe lattice rotations, commonly referred to as a microvolume, does not form without the ISB, and second, large amounts of accumulated slip in the ISB are required to enlarge the microvolume to sizes and rotation magnitudes observed experimentally. Ahead of the ISB tip, the quintessential plastic zone always forms, but the atypical microvolume forms when non-concentrated and spatially diffuse slip is activated by the ISB-induced stress field. This result suggests that the detrimental ISB/microvolume pair will likely appear in pairs of crystals in which transmission of the slip from the ISB is severely blocked by the grain boundary, a hypothesis that we verify with a few target cases.

International audience; The slip localization behavior of the polycrystalline nickel base superalloy Inconel 718 during monotonic tensile loading at room temperature, is investigated for the first time in relation to the 3D microstructure. Multi-modal data merging tools are used to recombine high resolution digital image correlation (HR-DIC) data with 3D electron back-scatter diffraction tomography (3D EBSD), over a wide region of interest. This procedure enables reconstruction of the slip band planes in the 3D microstructure. Statistical analyses conducted over 500 individual slip bands reveal strong correlations between their location and specific microstructure configurations. In particular, over half of the slip bands emanate from triple junction lines (3D lines defined by the junction of three crystals). Moreover, the most intense and longest slip bands, which would become critical fatigue crack nucleation sites during cyclic loading, are located close and parallel to particular annealing twin boundaries and are simultaneously connected to triple junction lines. Crystal plasticity finite elements calculations are performed on the experimental microstructure to identify the slip activity that results in the formation of high intensity slip bands (localized plasticity) or zones of high lattice rotation (non-localized plasticity) in these particular microstructure regions.