Microstructural strain distribution in ductile iron; comparison between finite element simulation and digital image correlation measurements

This paper presents a study on microstructural deformation of a ferritic-pearlitic ductile iron, utilizing in-situ tensile testing, digital image correlation (DIC) and finite element analysis (FEA). For this purpose, the in-situ tensile test and DIC were used to measure local strain fields in the deformed microstructure. Furthermore, a continuum finite element (FE) model was used to predict the strain maps in the microstructure. Ferrite and pearlite parameters for the FE-model were optimized based on the Ramberg-Osgood relation. The DIC and simulation strain maps were compared qualitatively and quantitatively. Similar strain patterns containing shear bands in identical locations were observed in both strain maps. The average and localized strain values of the DIC and simulation conformed to a large extent. It was found that the Ramberg-Osgood model can be used to capture the main trends of strain localization. The discrepancies between the simulated and DIC results were explained based on the; (i) subsurface effect of the microstructure; (ii) differences in the strain spatial resolutions of the DIC and simulation and (iii) abrupt changes in strain prediction of the continuum FE-model in the interface of the phases due to the sudden changes in the elastic modulus.