提出了一种针对超细晶和纳米晶金属(主要是fcc金属)晶间断裂的微结构计算模型,即采用基于机制的应变梯度塑性(CMSG)理论描述晶粒内部材料塑性变形过程中的变形、强化和尺度效应;采用黏聚力界面模型来模拟晶界的滑移和分离现象,以及晶间裂纹的萌生和演化,直至晶间断裂导致的材料失效.利用该计算模型模拟了纳米晶Ni的拉伸实验过程,对纳米晶Ni宏观力学行为和晶间微裂纹萌生与扩展之间的关系进行了研究,验证了针对超细晶和纳米晶力学性能的计算模型的有效性;同时,模拟结果表明,非均匀塑性变形导致高应变梯度效应,晶粒塑性变形强化显著,使晶界主导的变形机制对纳米晶金属的整体力学性能产生重要影响.
The intergranular fracture characteristics in nanocrystalline and ultra-fine polycrys- talline metallic materials present intensive size effect and microstructure geometry effect. The conventional elastic-plastic constitutive theory is unable to describe these effects because it doesn't contain any length parameters to characterize the scale changing. Regarding this, a micro-structured model was proposed for the study on intergranular fracture of nanocrystalline and microcrystalline metals (mainly for the fcc metals). The hardening and size effects of material plastic deformation are described by the computational model based on the conventional theory of mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity (CMSG). A cohesive interface model was used to simulate the processes of grain-boundary sliding and separation, the initiation and propagation of intergranular cracks until the material fracture. The tensile experiment and stress-strain curves of nanocrystalline Ni were simulated by using the present model. Then the relation between macroscopic mechanical behaviors and intergranular crack's initiation and propagation in nanocrystalline Ni was investigated. Through the simulation to the experimental result in literature, the validity of the proposed model calculated nanocrystalline and ultra-fine polycrystalline mechanical properties was confirmed. At the same time, the simulation results show that the high strain gradient effects and severely plastic hardening of grain are induced by inhomogeneous plastic deformation, and the grain boundary induced deformation has a significant influence on the overall mechanical properties of nanocrystalline metals.