The influence of substantial intragranular orientation gradients on the micromechanical response of heavily-worked material

Abstract

In this study, we employ high-energy X-ray characterization to examine the role of relatively large amounts of intragranular lattice misorientation – present after many thermomechanical processes – on the micromechanical response of Al-7085 with a modified T7452 temper. We utilize near-field high energy X-ray diffraction microscopy (HEDM) to measure three-dimensional (3D) spatial orientation fields, facilitated by a novel method that utilizes grain orientation envelopes measured using far-field HEDM to enable reconstruction of grains with intragranular orientation spreads greater than 20°. We then assess the consequences of consideration of intragranular orientation fields on the predicted deformation response of the sample through 3D micromechanical simulations of the forged Al-7085. We construct two virtual polycrystalline specimens for use in simulations: the first a faithful representation of the HEDM reconstruction, the second a microstructure with no intragranular misorientation (i.e., grain-averaged orientations). We find significant differences in the predicted deformation mechanism activation, distribution of stress, and distribution of plastic strain between simulations containing intragranular misorientation and those with grain-averaged orientations, indicating the necessity for consideration of intragranular orientation fields for accurate predictions. Further, the influence of elastic anisotropy is discussed, along with the effects of intragranular misorientation on fatigue life through the calculation and analysis of fatigue indicator parameters.