Structural changes in elastoplastic material: A unified finite-element approach to phase transformation, twinning and fracture (Q1578545)

The authors develop a unified numerical approach to temperature-, stress- and strain-induced phase transformation (PT), twinning and fracture in elastoplastic materials at small and finite strains. Both time-independent and time-dependent kinetics are considered. First, a problem formulation is presented for martensitic PT in elastoplastic isotropic materials both at small and finite strains. In the case of finite strains, the deformation model is based on the multiplicative decomposition of total deformation gradient into elastic, transformation and plastic parts. A non-symmetric plastic deformation gradient is used for PT at finite strains. An additional condition of zero modified plastic spin is derived for isotropic materials, instead of assuming the symmetry of plastic deformation gradient. After presentation of a complete set of kinematic and constitutive equations for plasticity, the authors describe conditions for coherent interfaces (with continuous displacements across the interface), incoherent interfaces (with discontinuous tangential displacements across the interface), and for the interface with decohesion (with crack at the interface). Then, the thermodynamic criteria and kinetic equations for structural changes (SC) are presented for time-independent and thermally activated kinetics. Further, the extremum principles are stated for the determination of location and volume of the transformed region. For time-dependent kinetics, the extremum principle corresponds to the minimum of transformation time, or to the minimum of transforming mass combined with the thermodynamic SC criterion. In addition, for time-independent kinetics the authors discuss a global criterion of SC based on stability analysis. The assumed finite element algorithm for determination of stress and strain variations during SC is realized at finite strains in a step-by-step form with a variable actual configuration. The applicability of the approach is illustrated by two-dimensional elastoplastic problems: layer-by-layer PT progress in a cylindrical specimen, adiabatic strain-induced PT at shear-band intersection and in a spherical particle embedded in a cylindrical sample, appearance and growth of temperature-induced martensitic plate in an austenitic matrix, appearance of a single twin in a space under applied shear stress or displacement, fracture in a sample with edge notch, and an interaction between PT and fracture in the same sample. The solutions obtained give insight into various effects, namely into the influence of strain fields on driving force for SC, into the interaction between PT, twinning, fracture and plasticity, into the effects of strain hardening and adiabatic heating, and into the formation of a discrete microstructure at PT and fracture (in particular, void nucleation ahead of crack tip rather then continuous crack propagation).