Microstructural evolution at multiple scales during plastic deformation

During plastic deformation metals develop microstructures which may be analysed on several scales, e.g. bulk textures, the scale of individual grains, intragranular phenomena in the form of orientation spreads as well as dislocation patterning by formation of dislocation boundaries in metals of medium to high stacking fault energy. Experimental data and associated data analysis at the grain scale and below will be presented to illustrate our current level of understanding. The basis for the analysis is the crystallographic orientation of the grain as well as the slip systems that are activated. More specifically the origin of both inter- and intragranular orientation spread is analysed for a specific example from tensile deformed interstitial-free steel [Oddershede et al. 2015]. A universal framework for the patterns consisting of dislocation boundaries is presented for both fcc and bcc materials in several deformation modes, demonstrating a clear grain orientation dependence [Huang & Winther, 2007]. This dependence has its origin in a dependence on the slip systems [Winther & Huang, 2007]. This further implies that the dislocations in the boundaries come from the active slip systems, which is backed up by experimental data [McCabe et al. 2004; Wei et al., 2011; Hong, Huang, & Winther, 2013]. The current state of understanding as well as the major challenges are discusse.