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The review starts by highlighting the significance of nuclear power plants in contemporary world, especially its indispensable role in the global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. Then, it describes the impact of irradiation on microstructure and mechanical properties of reactor structural materials. The main part provides the reader with a thorough overview of crystal plasticity models developed to address the irradiation effects so far. All three groups of most important materials are included. Namely, the Zr alloys used for fuel cladding, austenitic stainless steels used for reactor internals and ferritic steels used for reactor pressure vessel. Other materials, especially those considered for construction of future fission and fusion nuclear power plants, are also mentioned. The review pays also special attention to ion implantation and instrumented nanoindentation which are a common way to substitute costly and time-consuming neutron irradiation campaigns.

In this paper, the recently developed three-scale crystal plasticity model is applied to simulate microstructural evolution of austenitic and ferritic stainless steels subjected to large plastic strains. It is shown that the model is able to correctly predict both texture and misorientation angle distributions in the materials studied. Moreover, it can correctly capture the grain-refinement kinetics and the influence of the stacking fault energy. Finally, it is confirmed that the 3SCP model is a computationally attractive alternative for reliable modeling of microstructural evolutions in metals and alloys.

In the design and development of novel materials that have excellent mechanical properties, classification and regression methods have been diversely used across mechanical deformation simulations or experiments. The use of materials informatics methods on large data that originate in experiments or/and multiscale modeling simulations may accelerate materials discovery or develop new understanding of materials’ behavior. In this fast-growing field, we focus on reviewing advances at the intersection of data science with mechanical deformation simulations and experiments, with a particular focus on studies of metals and alloys. We discuss examples of applications, as well as identify challenges and prospects.

International audience; The goal of the present work is to identify and model the elastic–viscoplastic behavior of electrodeposited copper films under tension–compression loadings. From the experimental point of view, as proposed in the literature, a film of copper is electrodeposited on both sides of an elastic compliant substrate. The overall specimen is next subjected to tensile loading–unloadings. As the substrate remains elastic, the elastic–plastic response of copper under cyclic loading is experimentally determined. A clear kinematic hardening behavior is captured. To model the mechanical response, a new elastic–viscoplastic self-consistent scheme for polycrystalline materials is proposed. The core of the model is the tangent additive interaction law proposed in Molinari (2002). The behavior of the single grain is rate dependent where kinematic hardening is accounted for in the model at the level of the slip system. The model parameters are optimized via an evolutionary algorithm by comparing the predictions to the experimental cyclic response. As a result, the overall response is predicted. In addition, the heterogeneity in plastic strain activity is estimated by the model during cyclic loading.

Metallurgical and materials transactions / A 52, pages 3257 – 3273 (2021). doi:10.1007/s11661-021-06285-7, Evolutionary algorithms have become an extensively used tool for identification of crystalplasticity parameters of hexagonal close packed metals and alloys. However, the fitnessfunctions were usually built using the experimentally measured stress–strain curves. Here, thefitness function is built by means of numerical comparison of the simulated and experimentaltextures. Namely, the normalized texture difference index is minimized. The evolutionaryalgorithm with the newly developed fitness function is tested by performing crystal plasticityparameter optimization for both pure zinc and zinc-magnesium alloy. These materials arepromising candidates for bioabsorbable implants due to good biocompatibility and optimalcorrosion rate. Although their mechanical properties in the as-cast state do not fulfill therequirements, they can be increased by means of hydrostatic extrusion. The developed modelingapproach enabled acquisition of the crystal plasticity parameters and analysis of the activedeformation mechanisms in zinc and zinc-magnesium alloy subjected to hydrostatic extrusion. Itwas shown that although slip systems are the main deformation carrier, compressive twinningplays an important role in texture evolution. However, the texture is also partially affected bydynamic recrystallization which is not considered within the developed framework., Published by Springer, Boston

A three-scale crystal plasticity model is applied to simulate microstructure evolution in hcp titanium subjected to cold rolling. Crystallographic texture and misorientation angle development, as an indicator of grain refinement, are studied. The impact of twinning activity on both phenomena is accounted for by combining the original three-scale formulation with the probabilistic twin-volume consistent (PTVC) reorientation scheme. The modeling results are compared with available experimental data. It is shown that the simulated textures are in accordance with the experimental measurements. The basic components of misorientation angle distribution, especially in the range of high angle boundaries, are also well reproduced.

The paper reports experimental and numerical study of different deformation mechanisms activated in the AZ31B magnesium alloy sheet subjected to cyclic in-plane tensile – compressive deformation. The influence of slip, twinning and detwinning upon the mechanical response and texture evolution of the material is thoroughly investigated. The regime of twinning and detwinning activity is assessed based on the variation of hardening modulus in the course of the process. Velocity-based large strain crystal plasticity model accounting for twinning and detwinning is formulated. The crystal plasticity model parameters are identified using the implementation of the evolutionary algorithm. Predicted activity of deformation mechanisms is discussed with respect to the experimental data.

A new three-scale model of polycrystal accounting for grain refinement is proposed. The model is embedded into the crystal plasticity framework. With the experimental reference to the development of the dislocation induced cell substructure, a single crystallite in the representative grain aggregate is initially subdivided into subdomains with the crystallographic orientations slightly misoriented with respect to the nominal orientation of a parent grain. The predicted misorientation evolution of subgrains with respect to the reference orientation of a crystallite is an indicator of grain refinement. The correlation between the increase of a misorientation angle and a slip activity pattern is analyzed. The model predictions are compared with available experimental data.

Texture evolution in commercially pure titanium deformed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) and extrusion with forward–backward rotating die (KoBo) is studied both experimentally and numerically. New results are provided that demonstrate the effects of distinct and complex deformation paths on the texture in the ultra-fine grained (UFG) material obtained after severe plastic deformation (SPD). The numerical simulations are based on the self-consistent viscoplastic method of grain-to-polycrystal scale transition. A recently proposed modification of the probabilistic scheme for twinning is used that provides consistent values of the twin volume fraction in grains. The basic components of the experimentally observed texture are reasonably well reproduced in the modelling. The numerical simulations provide an insight into the internal mechanisms of plastic deformation, revealing substantial activity of mechanical twinning in addition to the basal and prismatic slip in titanium processed by ECAP.

Texture and twinning-induced anisotropy of the yield stress and hardening of AZ31B extruded rods is investigated. The multidirectional compression tests involving strain path changes are performed in order to: i. assess which slip and twinning systems are active in the polycrystalline sample with a strong texture, ii. analyze the influence of the preliminary deformation upon twin formation, iii. observe the resulting change of the mechanical response. In order to fulfil these goals mechanical testing is supplemented by microstructure analysis. Experimental observations are used to validate the proposed crystal plasticity framework when it is combined with the viscoplastic self-consistent scheme. On the other hand, the results of numerical simulations are used to confirm an advocated interpretation of experimental findings. Finally, the experimental and numerical results are discussed with respect to the theoretical study of slip and twinning activity on the basis of the generalized Schmid criterion. It is concluded that twinning activity influences the mechanical response predominantly by the texture change and to lesser extent by modification of strain hardening due to slip-twin interactions.

Grain refinement due to severe plastic deformation is simulated using the crystal plasticity finite element method in the total Lagrangian setting. A rate-independent model with the regularized Schmid law is applied. As an example, a single pass of the equal channel angular pressing process is considered. Texture evolution, misorientation angle distributions and maps of new grains are presented. A special algorithm for tracking the creation of new grains in finite element simulations is developed. The results are analysed with respect to experimental data available in the literature. The possible mechanisms leading to the fragmentation of grains in a face centred cubic material are discussed. The influence of the quality of the microstructure representation on the simulation results is assessed.

A computationally efficient procedure for modelling of microstructural changes on complex and spatially nonuniform deformation paths of severe plastic deformation (SPD) is presented. The analysis follows a two-step procedure. In the first step, motivated by saturation of material hardening at large accumulated strains, the steady-state kinematics of the process is generated for a non-hardening viscoplastic model by using the standard finite element method for a specified SPD scheme. In the second step, microstructural changes are investigated along the deformation-gradient trajectories determined in the first step for different initial locations of a material element. The aim of this study is to predict texture evolution and grain refinement in a non-conventional process of cold extrusion assisted by cyclic rotation of the die, called KOBO process, which leads to an ultra-fine grain structure. The texture evolution is calculated for fcc and hcp metals by applying crystal visco-plasticity combined with the self-consistent scale transition scheme. In parallel, by applying the simplified phenomenological model of microstructure evolution along the trajectories, grain refinement is modelled. The results are compared with available experimental data.