A Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method (CPFEM) based study to investigate the effect of microvoids in single crystalline aluminium alloy

Aluminium alloys are typically used in a variety of applications, which require high strength, ductility and formability. In order to understand the formability of such alloys along with underlying mechanisms, a CPFEM based study has been performed using crystal plasticity theory. Crystal plasticity finite element methods [1]–[4] have been used to perform the simulations on representative volume elements (RVE’s) of single crystal metal with different configurations, sizes and shapes of voids (defects). A part of the rigorous study will be presented in this work by taking into account the effect of void geometry, void fraction, void orientation, loading type (level of triaxiality), and crystallographic orientations. Using these large sets of simulations, analyses will be presented to better understand the underlying physical mechanisms which include interrelation among void growth, applied strain, void fraction, void size/shape, and plastic anisotropy effects under different types of loading.