Modelling of size effects in microforming process with consideration of grained heterogeneity

Size effect is a special phenomenon in metal micro-forming process. As the deformation process is scale down to micro/mesoscale, the characteristics of single grain involved in the deformed region play a significant role on the material mechanical behaviours resulting in the invalidation of classical theories in microforming. This paper presents a newly developed material model in microscale on the basis of the grained heterogeneity (e.g. grain size, shape and deformability) and specimen dimension. Voronoi tessellation has been employed to describe the polycrystalline aggregate. The grain shape is controlled by the centroidal-voronoi algorithm to drive grains into steady state. Hardness of the grains obtained from Nano-indentation is used to identify the scatter of the grained deformability. Applying the new material model, the micro-compression test of pure copper is numerically simulated by finite element method (FEM). The influences of grain size and feature size on the deformation behaviours are discussed. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results in terms of the flow stress curves and profile of deformed parts. Based on the novel material model, a FE model of microcross wedge rolling is established and the obtained results show the strain of specimen core region increases with the magnification of grain size. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.