Crystal plasticity modeling of texture development and hardening in TWIP steels

A new crystal plasticity model for face-centered cubic metals exhibiting deformation twinning is presented and assessed based on a comprehensive and original experimental dataset for twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel. Various scale transition schemes are tested, including a finite-element representation of the polycrystalline aggregate and a simplified Taylor-type modeling of pairwise interactions of adjacent grains. The same constitutive law is used at the grain level, relying on a dislocation-density-based description of work hardening and accounting for the latent hardening due to the presence of twins. At the macroscopic scale, the model provides improved predictions of the development of texture and hardening in uniaxial tension and during rolling. At the grain level, electron backscatter diffraction measurements confirm that the model properly estimates the volume fraction of twins inside individual grains as well as the average disorientation relative to the grain mean lattice orientation. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.