A mesomechanical analysis of the deformation and fracture in polycrystalline materials with ceramic porous coatings

Abstract

The special features inherent in the mesoscale mechanical behavior of a porous ceramic coating-steel substrate composite are investigated. Microstructure of the coated material is accounted for explicitly as initial conditions of a plane strain dynamic boundary-value problem solved by the finite difference method. Using a mechanical analogy method, a procedure for generating a uniform curvilinear finite difference computational mesh is developed to provide a more accurate description of the complex grain boundary geometry. A modified algorithm for generation of polycrystalline microstructure of the substrate is designed on the basis of the cellular automata method. The constitutive equations for a steel matrix incorporate an elastic-plastic model for a material subjected to isotropic hardening. The Hall-Petch relation is used to account for the effect of the grain size on the yield stress and strain hardening history. A brittle fracture model for a ceramic coating relying on the Huber criterion is employed. The model allows for crack nucleation in the regions of triaxial tension. The complex inhomogeneous stress and plastic strain patterns are shown to be due to the presence of interfaces of three types: coating-substrate interface, grain boundaries, and pore surfaces.