Strain rate effect of high purity aluminum single crystals: Experiments and simulations

• Deformation responses of pure aluminum single crystals were studied experimentally.
• Strong orientation and strain rate effects were observed.
• Deformation of single crystal aluminum was simulated by one element CPFEM.
• Three single crystal plasticity models served as the constitutive models for CPFEM.
• The classical and two newly developed single crystal plasticity models were used.

In order to study the strain rate effect on single crystal of aluminum (99.999% purity), aluminum single crystals are fabricated and subjected to uniaxial compression loading at quasi-static and dynamic strain rates, i.e., from 10−4 s−1 to 1000 s−1. The orientation dependence is also investigated with single slip or multi slip. The stress–strain curves of pure Al single crystals along two orientations and at different strain rates are obtained after measuring initial orientation using the Laue Back-Reflection technique.Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method (CPFEM) with three different single crystal plasticity constitutive models is used to simulate the deformations along two orientations under various strain-rates. The classical and two newly developed single crystal plasticity models are used in the investigation. The simulation results of these models are compared to experimental results in order to study their abilities to predict finite plastic deformation of single crystalline metal over a wide strain rate range.