Micromechanical modeling of martensitic transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) in austenitic single crystals (Q1973712)

This paper is devoted to the derivation of constitutive equations for an austenitic single crystal undergoing martensitic phase transformation within a thermodynamic and micromechanic framework, taking into account both the orientation effect (corresponding to the orientation of the transformation by internal and applied stresses) and the accommodation effect (corresponding to the accommodation by oriented plastic flows of austenitic and martensitic phases due to the local stress field inside both phases). The transformation strain is given by a set of 24 variants deduced from the crystallographic theory. The progress of the transformation is the result of the nucleation and instantaneous growth of new martensitic domains considered as ellipsoidal inclusions. In the first part, kinetics and kinematical studies inside the representative volume element allow to link the overall inelastic response of the material with the macroscale strain mechanisms (plastic strain of both phases and transformation strain), and to define the internal variables describing its microstructure evolution. In the second part, the Helmholtz free energy is derived, and from its evolution the thermodynamic driving forces are deduced using simultaneously the concepts of ellipsoidal growing and interface operators. Then, the obtained driving forces are compared with critical forces. The expression for the critical forces is based on physical concepts taking into account the hardening of austenite and martensite due to their own plastic strains, the hardening of the martensitic phase due to the plastic strain inherited from the austenite, the strain induced martensitic transformation and the martensitic topological hardening due to geometrical restrictions. That comparison allows to obtain the overall behavior as well as the evolution of internal variables as function of the thermomechanical loading. Finally, the authors apply the theoretical model to a simple case of a macroscopic shear where only one martensitic variant appears together with simple slip in both the austenite and martensite in the purely deviatoric transformation strain. The obtained results agree with with experimental observations in the case of cooling both under a constant stress and under an increasing stress at a constant temperature.