This thesis examines the qualitative and quantitative variation in local plastic deformation and surface roughening due to crystallographic texture in body-centered cubic materials, specifically interstitial-free steel sheet and molybdenum foil and sheet. Complex forming operations currently used in industrial manufacturing lead to high material failure rates, due in part to the severity of the applied strain path. A multi-scale model was developed to examine the contribution of mesoscopic and local microscopic behaviour to the macroscopic constitutive response of bcc metals during deformation. The model integrated a dislocation-based hardening scheme and a Taylor-based crystal-plasticity formulation into the subroutine of an explicit dynamic FEM code, LS-DYNA. Numerical analyses using this model were able to predict not only correct grain rotation during deformation, but variations in plastic anisotropy due to initial crystallographic orientation. Simulations of molybdenum foil under uniaxial tension supported the existence of bending due to local variations in plastic anisotropy, confirmed with good quantitative agreement by experimental measurements of surface roughening. A series of two-stage strain-path tests were performed, revealing a prestrain-dependent softening of both the steel and molybdenum samples when an orthogonal secondary strain path is applied. Numerical analyses of these tests overestimate macroscopic hardening during complex loading, due in part to the dynamic nature of the FEM code used. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-15 11:51:04.518

La présence de l’hélium induite par le fonctionnement des futurs réacteurs à neutrons rapides et à fusion dans les matériaux de cœur peut entrainer une dégradation de leurs propriétés mécaniques (durcissement, gonflement, fragilisation). Pour poursuivre le développement des alliages de structure, il est nécessaire d’acquérir une meilleure compréhension de l’interaction entre l’He et les structures métalliques donc le point en commun est de comporter comme métal de base un élément de cristallographie cubique centrée (CC), notamment le fer et le vanadium.L’implantation ionique d’ions 4He a été utilisée pour simuler les effets d’endommagement liés à l’insertion d’He, la création des défauts ponctuels (lacunes, interstitiels) et la formation des amas hélium-lacunes dans les futurs réacteurs. L’évolution du comportement de l’He dans le fer et le vanadium purs a été mise en évidence tant du point de vue de la nature des sites de piégeage que du point de vue des mécanismes de migration de l’He et de germination et croissance de bulles associés, en s'appuyant sur un couplage original de techniques. Les résultats obtenus mettent en avant une différence de comportement entre les deux métaux CC, bien que certains mécanismes impliqués soient similaires. Les défauts microstructuraux, notamment les joints de grains, et la concentration d’He implantée (fluence) joueront des rôles clés sur le comportement de l’He à haute température.Les données expérimentales acquises couplées avec des méthodes de simulation serviront de point de départ pour développer une approche cinétique et thermodynamique du comportement de l’He dans les éléments constitutifs des alliages d’intérêt nucléaire. / The presence of helium produced during the operation of future fast reactors and fusion reactors in core structural materials induces a deterioration of their mechanical properties (hardening, swelling, embrittlement).In order to pursue the development of the metallic structural alloys, it is necessary to comprehend the He interaction with the metal lattice thus the point in common is the study of the metallic components with body-centered cubic structure (bcc) of future alloys, such as iron and/or vanadium.Ion implantation of ions 4He was employed with the aim of simulating the damaging effects associated with the helium accumulation, the point defects’ creation (vacancies, self-interstitials) and the He cluster formation in future reactors. Helium evolution in pure iron and pure vanadium has been revealed from the point of view of the trapping sites’ nature and well as the helium migration mechanisms and the nucleation/growth of bubbles. These phenomena were studied by coupling different complementary techniques. Despite of the fact that some mechanisms involved seem to be similar for both bcc metals, the comparison between the helium behavior in iron and vanadium shows certain differences. Microstructural defects, including grain boundaries and implanted helium concentration (dose) in both bcc metals will play significant roles on the helium behavior at high temperature.The acquired experimental data coupled with simulation methods contribute to the future development in terms of kinetic and thermodynamic data management of helium behavior in the metal components of the alloys of nuclear interest.

The dependence of flow stress of body centered cubic metals on variables such as strain rate, temperature, strain and microstructural is a research area of continued interest. Recently, there has been renewed interest in deformation of fine grained BCC metals, which display characteristics that are different from their coarse-grained counterparts. Deformation mechanisms, strain-rate and temperature dependence, and strain hardening characteristics of fine-grained BCC metals are not well understood. The aim of this thesis is to understand the effect of strain-rate, temperature, strain and microstructure (i.e., grain size) on the mechanical response of poly¬crystalline tantalum. Among the topics addressed were constitutive modeling of flow stress, understanding the microstructural origins of strain hardening, and characterizing the effect of severe plastic deformation (SPD) on microstructure and mechanical properties. Rolling and equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) were among the processing techniques employed. Mechanical testing was conducted over a range of temperatures and strain rates, and this was supported by a slew of microscopic characterization methods. It was found that the strain hardening response depends on microstructural evolution at different strain rates. Results indicate that the same thermally activated mechanisms operate in both as-received and processed material and this was found to be the overcoming of Peierls barriers via a double-kink mechanism. Lastly, it was found that the low strain rate sensitivity of SPD processed material was not due to fine grain size, but instead due to high internals stresses.