Microstructure sensitive design of an orthotropic plate subjected to tensile load

Microstructure Sensitive Design (MSD) is a newly developed mathematical framework that facilitates rigorous solutions to inverse problems in microstructure design of materials. In this paper, this methodology is applied to an orthotropic thin plate containing a circular hole subjected to an in-plane uniaxial tensile load. The primary design objective is to maximize the load carrying capacity of the plate while avoiding plastic deformation in the plate. Making use of the inherent anisotropy of fcc polycrystals arising from distribution of lattice orientations (also referred to as crystallographic texture), microstructures have been identified in copper that are predicted to yield the best and worst possible performance, respectively. The microstructure with the best load carrying capacity was found to show an increase of about 59% compared to the microstructure with the worst load carrying capacity. The solutions from the MSD methodology were validated by direct comparisons from finite element simulations that employed a Taylor-type polycrystal constitutive model at each integration point. A reasonable agreement was obtained between MSD predictions and finite element simulations.