Monte Carlo simulation of polycrystalline microstructures and finite element stress analysis

•MC grain growth simulation and FEM stress analyses are applied for polycrystals.•The grains and their boundaries affect the heterogeneous stress distribution.•The average stress and the grain size agree well with the Hall–Petch relationship.

A two-dimensional numerical model of microstructural effects is presented, with an aim to understand the mechanical performance in polycrystalline materials. The microstructural calculations are firstly carried out on a square lattice by means of a 2-D Monte Carlo (MC) simulation for grain growth, then the conventional finite element method is applied to perform stress analysis of a plane strain problem. The mean grain size and the average stress are calculated during the MC evolution. The simulation result shows that the mean grain size increases with the simulation time, which is about 3.2 at 100 Monte Carlo step (MCS), and about 13.5 at 5000 MCS. The stress distributions are heterogeneous in materials because of the existence of grains. The mechanical property of grain boundary significantly affects the average stress. As the grains grow, the average stress without grain boundary effect slightly decreases as the simulation time, while the one with strengthening effect significantly decreases, and the one with weakening effect increases. The average stress and the grain size agree well with the Hall–Petch relationship.