Author(s)

C. F. Cornwell & R. W. Noack

Abstract

We report on a systematic means of generating a finite element (FE) mesh for realistic three-dimensional (3D) microstructure systems that are suitable for FE analysis. The relationship between a materials microstructure and its properties are well documented and drive efforts to model the substructure evolution of textured materials. An accurate 3D computer representation of the microstructure arrangement of a material is essential to modeling the behavior and performance of materials at the microstructure level. We describe a method that uses a combination of experimental and computational techniques to produce an accurate statistical representation of its microstructure arrangement. The experimental results are used to guide the construction of the abstract 3D digital model and to provide a quantitative measure for gauging the accuracy and quality of the model upon completion. Information about the size, shape, and orientation of the grains as well as the crystallographic orientation and miss-orientation between adjacent grains can be reproduced. A 3D advancing front grid-generating technique then uses this information to produce a tetrahedral volume mesh for the material that is suitable for FE analysis. 1 Introduction The goal of the current work is to provide polycrystallinematerial modelers access to accurate three-dimensional (3D) digital microstructure models that are validated by direct comparison to experimental recrystallization data and an auto-

Keywords