Dislocation structures formation induced by thermal stress in additive manufacturing: Multiscale crystal plasticity modeling of dislocation transport.

The motion of dislocations governs the plastic deformation of crystalline materials, which in turn determines the mechanical properties. The complex thermal history, large temperature gradients and high cooling rates during the process of additive manufacturing (AM) can induce high dislocation density and unique dislocation structures in the material. The origin of these dislocation structures and their stability during mechanical loading are debated. A novel temperature dependent continuum dislocation dynamics (CDD) model is developed, in which four state variables are used for each slip system representing the total dislocation density, edge and screw geometrically necessary dislocation densities and dislocation curvature. The CDD model is fully coupled with a crystal plasticity solver, which captures the plastic deformation induced by the dislocation motion. A hybrid continuous and discontinuous Galerkin formulation is developed to accurately reproduce the dynamics of highly discontinuous dislocation density fields that are typical of dislocation structures. A multiscale modeling approach is used, in which the thermally induced deformation in specific grains of a polycrystal is extracted from larger scale crystal plasticity simulations of the laser powder-bed fusion process, and is then used for single crystal scale dislocation dynamics simulations. Simulation results reveal the dynamics of dislocation structure formation in grains at different positions during laser scanning and cooling stages. The effect of the cyclic thermal stress during multi-layer AM fabrication is also investigated. The simulations provide a new perspective on the specific conditions that should be satisfied during AM process for the formation of stable dislocation structures. [Display omitted] • A CDD model is developed and coupled with a crystal plasticity framework. • A multiscale approach is proposed to simulate the dislocation evolution in AM process. • Thermal stress effect on dislocation structure formation in AM process is revealed. • Significant effect of annihilation on dislocation structure is presented. • Factors affecting dislocation evolution in cyclic thermal loading of AM are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]