A kinematical model for the plastic deformation of face-centred cubic polycrystals

During the plastic deformation of a polycrystalline material the deformation of the individual grain must be adjusted to the deformation of the surrounding grains so that material continuity is maintained. This continuity condition is the essential feature distinguishing polycrystal deformation from single-crystal deformation. In the present work it is attempted to explain how the continuity condition is fulfilled in face-centred cubic polycrystals. The early treatments of the plastic deformation of polycrystalline materials were aimed directly at the formulation of a ''dynamical'' theory, i.e. it was the intention to cover the magnitude of the stresses involved as well as the slip processes producing the deformation. It is argued that rolling texture is a good tool for a necessary intermediate stage of establishing a ''kinematical'' model describing the slip processes, but not the magnitude of the necessary stresses. Three aspects of rolling texture are considered: (a) the development of the rolling textures found experimentally in face-centred cubic materials can be computer-simulated on the basis of models for the plastic deformation that only involve (111) <110> slip; (b) experimentally that the widely accepted twinning theory for the transition in f.c.c. rolling texture does not reflect the behaviour of real materials; and (c) it is shown that the texture transition is thermally activated with an activation energy corresponding to that of cross slip. An electron-microscopical investigation of the slip process operating during rolling of f.c.c. polycrystals is also included. On the basis of the computer simulation of the texture formation supplemented by the experimental results a kinematical model is developed for the plastic deformation of f.c.c. polycrystals by rolling. In the proposed model the material continuity is maintained by inhomogeneous slip processes, combined with homogeneous multiple glide when the cross-slip frequency is high. (author)