Simulation of elasto-plastic behaviour of an artificial 3D-structure under dynamic loading

From the meso-mechanical point of view, the internal structure of a material considerably influences its plastic deformation pattern at the meso-scale level. 2D calculations have shown that the consideration of an internal structure in an explicit form allows us to describe some experimentally observed phenomena, such as plastic strain localisation, material fragmentation, shear and rotation of grain conglomerates, etc. Real structural effects are three-dimensional by nature and in many cases can not be simulated in the framework of a 2D model. It is, therefore, a challenge to perform 3D-modelling for meso-volume behaviour under loading, taking into account material internal structure, and to investigate the phenomena caused by structural effects. In this paper, a special routine to generate a 3D heterogeneous structure is proposed. To calculate a 3D polycrystalline test-piece under plane shock wave as an example, we solve a dynamic problem and obtain numerical solutions using the finite-difference method. The results of 3D simulations are analysed and compared with those for a 2D set. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.