Cyclic behavior of extruded magnesium: experimental, microstructural and numerical approach (Q422807)

The paper studies cyclic behavior of pure wrought magnesium submitted to small plastic strains. The work focuses on the Bauschinger effect and its evolution with cycling. The Bauschinger effect is related to a lower yield stress during reverse loading, and is explained by the inhomogeneities in deformation between two or several phases and the resulting internal stresses. Mechanical twinning favors the multiplication of interfaces and enhances hardening and pileups building, that provides the Bauschinger effect. In order to understand the origins of the mechanical response of cycled magnesium, optical metallography, TEM observations, as well as polycrystalline modeling are conducted in the paper in parallel with the mechanical testing. The material used in the work is commercially pure magnesium that was hot rolled, hot extruded and recrystallized. As it is shown by experiments, the magnesium behaves as a multi-material with different yield stress levels, where some grains develop basal slip and may be considered as soft, and other ones develop pyramidal and prismatic dislocations and may be considered as hard. Then, the authors develop a mean field model aimed to accurate account for the symmetry between traction and compression, and particular shape of the hysteresis loop with the inflexion point stated in mechanical testing. Three scales are represented in the microstructure, the macroscopic level, the grain and inside grains, the matrix and the twins. Three deformation mechanisms are considered: slip in the matrix, twinning, and slip in twins. Then the model introduces a stress tensor and a plastic strain tensor with computation of the inelastic strain rate. The model closure is provided by a scale transition rule, which defines the relation between the stresses and strains of two adjacent levels. In this paper, the scale transition is obtained by means of the so-called \(\beta\)-rule model that was introduced to recover the nonlinear evolution of internal stresses, by replacing the difference of plastic strains by a term involving phenomenological accommodation variables. Three scale transition parameters are considered at transition from macroscale to grain, from grain scale to matrix and from grain scale to twins. They are fitted to insure the self-consistency of the model. A practical solution consists in calibrating the model for a simple tension loading according to Berveiller-Zaoui's model. In numerical simulation, the experimental measured texture is discretized into a finite number of grain orientations defined by three Euler angles. The numerical integration is performed with a second-order Runge-Kutta algorithm equipped with an automatic time stepping. The model correctly captures the stress asymmetry and experimental levels in tension and compression at cyclic loading. The numerical evaluation of the twin fraction with cycling is an agreement with experimental observations and the amount of different dislocation and twins systems.