Simulation of stored energy and orientation gradients in cold-rolled interstitial free steels

The plane strain compression of polycrystalline interstitial free steels is simulated using the crystal plasticity finite element method. In order to capture the interaction between neighboring grains, a simplified quasi 3-D geometric mesh is used in the simulation. The analysis shows that the orientation gradients depend not only on the initial orientation of the grain, but also on the neighboring grains. The simulation shows that the distribution of orientation in the deformed grains can be classified into three types based on the main texture components. The simulations provide a method to quantitatively evaluate the orientation-dependent stored energy in cold-rolled IF steels. The accumulation of stored energy at the specific grain boundaries is also a function of initial orientations as well as neighboring grains. (C) 2003 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.