Quantitative description of the plastic deformation of grains in polycrystalline materials
Abstract
Polycrystals are characterized by an intricate microstructure, which consist, among others, of grains with their boundaries. Grain geometry is of a stochastic nature and the relationships between the shape and size of grains have received less attention in analyzing the plastic deformation of polycrystals in the past due to technical difficulties involved in any measurements of these effects. A single phase stainless steel of 316L type has been studied and the interest was focused on the changes in the grain geometry during deformation in the tensile test. Also, a computer model has been used to verify the validity of stereological measurements of deformed microstructures. Detailed measurements of grain geometry have been carried out with the use of a system for image analysis. The analysis involved such parameters as grain area, grain shape factors etc. The same measurements were carried out on live images and model microstructures obtained by controlled distortion of the images characteristic for undeformed material.