An RVE procedure for micromechanical prediction of mechanical behavior of dual-phase steel

A “bottom-up” representative volume element (RVE) for a dual phase steel was constructed based on measured microstructural properties (“microproperties”). This differs from the common procedure of inferring hypothetical microproperties by fitting to macroscopic behavior using an assumed micro-to-macrolaw. The bottom-up approach allows the assessment of the law itself by comparing RVE-predicted mechanical behavior with independent macroscopic measurements, thus revealing the nature of the controlling micromechanisms. An RVE for DP980 steel was constructed using actual microproperties. Finite element (FE) simulations of elastic-plastic transitions were compared with independent loading-unloading-loading and compression-tension experiments. Constitutive models of three types were utilized: 1) a standard continuum model, 2) a standard Crystal Plasticity (CP) model, and 3) a SuperDislocation (SD) model similar to CP but including the elastic interactions of discrete dislocations. These comparisons led to following conclusions: 1) While a constitutive model that ignores elastic interaction of defects can be fit to macroscopic or microscopic behavior, it cannot represent both accurately, 2) Elastic interactions among dislocations are the predominant source of nonlinearity in the nominally-elastic region (i.e. at stresses below the standard yield stress), and 3) Continuum stress inhomogeneity arising from the hard martensite / soft ferrite microstructure has a minor role in the observed transitional nonlinearity in the absence of discrete dislocation interactions.