Two-temperature thermodynamics and a viscoplasticity model for FCC metals with grain boundary effect

A non-equilibrium thermodynamic route is pursued to model viscoplasticity, including the evolving grain boundary, in face-centered cubic (FCC) metals. The thermodynamic description includes two subsystems: the configurational subsystem describing the relatively slower motion of dislocations and grain boundaries, and a fast-evolving kinetic-vibrational (K-V) subsystem depicting atomic vibrations about equilibrium positions in the lattice. Grain boundary and dislocation densities as well as their interactions are incorporated within the model. The model is initially developed for homogeneous plastic deformation, which is then generalized to the inhomogeneous case via spatial variations in the thermodynamic states over a wide range of strain rate and temperature. The model is implemented as a user material subroutine (VUMAT) in ABAQUS to simulate a problem of industrial interest, viz. deep drawing on an AA 7075 aluminum alloy. Finally, the thermo-viscoplasticity model is used to predict negative strain rate sensitivity in the AA 2219 aluminum alloy at room temperature, for which an experiment is performed at a facility of the VSSC. The predictive quality of the model is demonstrated by a comparison of numerical simulations with the experimental evidence.