Small strain heterogeneous deformation in polycrystals

A program to study the micromechanics of polycrystalline deformation is outlined. The viscoplastic stress-strain behavior of a polycrystalline metal was successfully predicted from the measured single crystal properties of the same metal and the predictions were experimentally verified. Current research focuses on predicting the grain to grain heterogeneity of the mechanical response. This response has been predicted using both a self-consistent method and a more detailed method using an integral equation approach. The predicted response will be compared with a Moire strain analysis and neutron diffraction experiments to be performed on a coarse grained sample of polycrystalline Hastelloy-X metal. The goal is to produce an experimentally verified model capable of realistically modeling the heterogeneous mechanical response due to orientation variation of the grains in the polycrystal