An extended 3D discrete-continuous model and its application on single- and bi-crystal micropillars

A 3D discrete-continuous model (3D DCM), which couples the 3D discrete dislocation dynamics (3D DDD) and finite element method (FEM), is extended in this study. New schemes for two key information transfers between DDD and FEM, i.e. plastic-strain distribution from DDD to FEM and stress transfer from FEM to DDD, are suggested. The plastic strain induced by moving dislocation segments is distributed to an elementary spheroid (ellipsoid or sphere) via a specific new distribution function. The influence of various interfaces (such as free surfaces and grain boundaries (GBs)) on the plastic-strain distribution is specially considered. By these treatments, the deformation fields can be solved accurately even for dislocations on slip planes severely inclined to the FE mesh, with no spurious stress concentration points produced. In addition, a stress correction by singular and non-singular theoretical solutions within a cut-off sphere is introduced to calculate the stress on the dislocations accurately. By these schemes, the present DCM becomes less sensitive to the FE mesh and more numerically efficient, which can also consider the interaction between neighboring dislocations appropriately even though they reside in the same FE mesh. Furthermore, the present DCM has been employed to model the compression of single-crystal and bi-crystal micropillars with rigid and dislocation-absorbed GBs. The influence of internal GB on the jerky stress-strain response and deformation mode is studied in detail to shed more light on these important micro-plastic problems. (paper)