A method to extract slip system dependent information for crystal plasticity models

A tool to implement a length scale dependency to classical crystal plasticity simulations is presented. Classical crystal plasticity models do not include a size effect; therefore, the size of the grain does not influence the simulated deformation. Classical crystal plasticity advancements have been through the inclusion of stress or strain gradient based constitutive models to improve the simulation of length scale dependent deformation. However, this tool presents an alternative to implementing a length scale, where the influence of slip pile-up in the form of dislocations at grain boundaries as a potential to explaining the Hall-Petch effect in materials. This is achieved by calculating the slip distance in adjacent grains for each slip system, by assuming the total slip length spans the grain in the slip direction. These calculations can occur in two ways. The first is the analysis occurs at the start of the simulation, therefore, only occurs once. If this approach is used, the computational cost of this tool is minute. However, if the simulations consider large deformations, during which it is expected that the grains are going to undergo large rotations, then it would be advantageous to the have the tool recalculate the information during the analysis. Consequently, the computational cost would depend on the resolution of the modelled geometry, the number of grains, and the number of slip systems. The tool also provides a capability to develop constitutive models based on complex grain boundary features which can be implemented in classical crystal plasticity models and gradient based crystal plasticity models. The described calculation process is implemented through a Fortran subroutine, which has been designed to be easily used in crystal plasticity simulations. The presented tool also includes Python code designed to link with microstructures built using DREAM.3D to extract the required input data to the Fortran subroutine. The proposed tool is not limited to classical crystal plasticity formulations, instead the data extracted and outputted from the Fortran subroutine can be used to serve alternative purposes in both stress and strain gradient crystal plasticity models. The proposed tool can be modified to extract additional data to that presented. The slip distance in the adjacent grain, the distance from the grain boundary of the current calculation point, and the interaction between slip systems between grains can be used in any crystal plasticity constitutive models.