Nonlocal versus local elastoplastic behavior of heterogeneous materials (Q1309797)

The authors derived a nonlocal constitutive relation for plastic behavior of heterogeneous materials. As is well known, the scale transition methods have been developed for several years in order to obtain the overall behavior of polycrystalline materials from their microscopic behavior and their microstructure. In this formulation some basic aspects are absent; the heterogeneization by plastic straining which involves the nonlocality of hardening seems to be the most significant. The nonlocal constitutive theory derived here is based upon crystalline plasticity and is valid at the grain level. With regard to the polycrystal, in order to deduce the behavior of a local homogeneous medium, an integral equation is proposed and solved for nonlocal inhomogeneous materials by the self-consistent approximation. The authors have developed this scheme in case of a two-phase nonlocal material representing the dislocation cell structure induced during plastic straining. By a numerical simulation based one a simplified model they showed significant effects on the intragranular heterogeneization. This work seems to be useful for researchers working on the crystalline formulation of plasticity.