Modeling the thermoelastic–viscoplastic response of polycrystals using a continuum representation over the orientation space

Conventional methodologies towards polycrystal plasticity use an aggregate of single crystals and this choice of the aggregate affects the response of the polycrystal. In order to address this issue, a continuum approach is presented for the representation of polycrystals through an orientation distribution function over the orientation space. Additionally, a constitutive framework for thermoelastic–viscoplastic response of metals based on polycrystal plasticity is presented along with a coupled macro–micro, fully implicit Lagrangian finite element algorithm. Numerical examples that highlight the accuracy, performance and benefits of the proposed approach are presented. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.