Problem Specification and Assumptions — Lesson 2

In this course, we will be investigating a microstructure characterization workflow, where we are given a microstructure (either from experiment or synthetically generated) and the relevant material properties and asked to produce the stress-strain curve under a given loading condition. We will be using a synthetic microstructure generated from DREAM.3D. The microstructure is oligocrystalline, meaning that it has constant texture in the specimen thickness direction, and plane-strain condition along the thickness (Z) direction is assumed. The cuboid microstructure has a length and width of 1 mm and a thickness of 0.02 mm (1 element in the thickness direction). We will investigate the mechanical response of the microstructure under 2% nominal tensile strain in the Y direction and report the stress-strain curve of the microstructure.

The following assumptions are made (for this course only, they are not limitations of the crystal plasticity material model):

1. The material is assumed to be Aluminum 2024 T3
2. Plane-strain condition is assumed.
3. Crystal rotation for all grains is assumed to lie within the XY plane (rotation along the Z-axis).

You may use the Ansys Student version 2023R2 or later to solve this problem. For older versions of the Ansys product (after 2022R1, where crystal plasticity was first released), the tetrahedral meshing workflow for microstructures is unavailable, but you may continue with all other components of this course using the hexahedral mesh option.