2024/11/01 by Eralp Demir, Alvaro Martinez-Pechero, Chris Hardie +1 · 65 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · #Advanced ceramic materials synthesis #Composite Material Mechanics #Composite material #Computer science #Crystal plasticity #Engineering #Materials science #Plasticity #Rock Mechanics and Modeling #Structural engineering
paper · doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2024.113110
published in International Journal of Solids and Structures 307, 113110 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2024/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The crystal plasticity-based finite element method is widely used, as it allows complex microstructures to be simulated and allows direct comparison with experiments. This paper presents the OXFORD-UMAT for Abaqus®, a novel crystal plasticity code that is publicly available online for researchers interested in using crystal plasticity. The model is able to simulate a wide range of materials and incorporates two different solvers based on the solution of slip increments and Cauchy stress with variants of state update procedures including explicit, semi-implicit, and fully-implicit for computational efficiency that can be set by the user based on the application. Constitutive laws are available for a range of materials with single or multiple phases for slip, creep, strain hardening, and back stress. The model includes geometrically necessary dislocations that can be computed using finite element interpolation functions by four alternative methods, including the total form with and without a correction for the dislocation flux, a widely used rate form, and a slip-gradient formulation. In addition, the initial strengthening and subsequent softening seen in irradiated materials can also be simulated with the model. The analysis is available in 2D (plane stress and plane strain) and 3D, including linear and quadratic elements. Here we include full derivations of the key equations used in the code and then demonstrate the capability of the code by modeling single-crystal and large-scale polycrystal cases. Comparison of OXFORD-UMAT with other available crystal plasticity codes for Abaqus® reveals the efficiency of the proposed approach, with the backup solver offering greater versatility for handling convergence issues commonly found in practical applications. • A computationally efficient and modular crystal plasticity solver scheme relying on two different solvers. • Single crystal models for slip, creep, strain hardening, length scale dependence, back stress and irradiation resistance. • Overview of crystal plasticity equations with derivations.