Simulation of Cyclic Plastic Behavior of 304L Steel Using the Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method

The stabilised cyclic plasticity behaviour of 304L austenitic stainless steel at room temperature is studied by using the multiscale crystal plasticity finite element method within the software ABAQUS. The physical-based material constitutive equations are coded in the UMAT user-subroutine. A polycrystal model is constructed and is shown to be able to approximate the macroscale cyclic plasticity behaviour. The distributions of stress, strain and plastic dissipation energy are examined locally to investigate their relationship with the possible crack initiation sites, and the effects of grain orientation. The effects of grain boundaries are also studied by studying the distribution of dislocation density and the number of active slip systems.