3D FEM Simulation of Void Growth in Aluminum Single Crystals

Void growth in aluminum single crystals is simulated using the finite element method, to illustrate the effect of grain orientation on void growth, a rate dependent crystal plasticity constitutive theory is implemented as a user-defined plasticity subroutine. A three-dimension unit cell including a sphere void was employed using three-dimensional 12 active slip systems. The computed results for several grain orientations are compared, which have shown that crystallographic orientation has significant influence on growth behavior of void. And the void growth direction and shape significantly depend on the crystallographic orientation. Due to plastic flow localization and anisotropic behavior, void which has an initial sphere shape, develops an irregular shape and some corners.