Stochastic 3D microstructure modeling of twinned polycrystals for investigating the mechanical behavior of γ-TiAl intermetallics

A stochastic 3D microstructure model for polycrystals is introduced which incorporates two types of twin grains, namely neighboring and inclusion twins. They mimic the presence of crystal twins in γ-TiAl polycrystalline microstructures as observed by 3D imaging techniques. The polycrystal grain morphology is modeled by means of Voronoi and –more generally– Laguerre tessellations. The crystallographic orientation of each grain is either sampled uniformly on the space of orientations or chosen to be in a twinning relation with another grain. The model is used to quantitatively study relationships between morphology and mechanical properties of polycrystalline materials. For this purpose, full-field Fourier-based computations are performed to investigate the combined effect of grain morphology and twinning on the overall elastic response. For γ-TiAl polycrystallines, the presence of twins is associated with a softer response compared to polycrystalline aggregates without twins. However, when comparing the influence on the elastic response, a statistically different polycrystalline morphology has a much smaller effect than the presence of twin grains. Notably, the bulk modulus is almost insensitive to the grain morphology and exhibits much less sensitivity to the presence of twins compared to the shear modulus. The numerical results are consistent with a two-scale homogenization estimate that utilizes laminate materials to model the interactions of twins.