Experimental and numerical studies on the micromechanical crystal plasticity behavior of an RPV steel

The PhD project studies the mechanical response of the reactor pressure vessel steel A508cl3 (or 16MND5 in French nomenclature) at the microscopic scale by experimental analyses and numerical simulations. Different aspects of in-situ tests inside an SEM chamber have been considered. First, the characterization and corrections of bias and uncertainties of different SEM imaging modalities (SE, BSE, and EBSD) have been performed. Precise registrations of SEM images in different modalities have been developed in order to give a comprehensive description of the sample surface topographies. Crystallographic orientation maps (from EBSD analyses) are registered to measure the crystal rotation and displacement fields along the tensile test. The elastic deformations of the surface are assessed by integrated correlation of high-resolution electron diffraction images. The 3D microstructure of the analyzed sample is revealed a posteriori by combining FIB milling and EBSD images. The experimental test is also simulated by crystal plasticity calculations on a 3D mesh created according to the 3D microstructure observed in the deformed configuration. An algorithm has been proposed to estimate its initial configuration and to identify the plastic parameters iteratively. A synthetic 2D model has been used to prove its feasibility. Two crystal plasticity laws have been validated on the 3D mesh, namely dislocation dynamics for body-centered cubic crystals and a modified version of Meric-Cailletaud model. In the present work finite element model updating was used to provide two sets of parameters (for ferrite and bainite) for the latter law. (author)