In-situ measurement of texture and elastic strains with HIPPO–CRATES

In this paper, the micromechanical interaction between constituents of a metallic material during elastic and plastic deformation are analyzed by comparing experimental results with modeling predictions. This comparison aims at determining the locally acting internal stresses, the spatial distribution of strains and the rules allowing deriving the macroscopic behavior of the material from the behavior of its microscopic constituents. We report the application of a new deformation apparatus CRATES, which allows measuring texture and crystal lattice spacings, and from these crystal lattice strains, using neutron diffraction. From the in-situ measured elastic lattice strains ɛhkl the corresponding local stresses can be derived. The deformation apparatus allows uni-axial tensile or compressive deformation up to 100kN and is specifically designed for use in the HIPPO neutron time-of-flight diffractometer. In this paper, we report initial results on an iron–copper model system (Fe100, Fe33Cu67, Fe67Cu33, vol.%) and commercial magnesium alloys (Mg-AZ31 and Mg-AZ80). Finite element calculations using a crystal-plastic constitutive law, allowing for shear and hardening of crystallographic slip-systems, were used for the interpretation of the measurements.