Bending of single crystal microcantilever beams of cube orientation: Finite element model and experiments

The aim of this work is to investigate the microstructure evolution, stress–strain response and strain hardening behavior of microscale beams. For that purpose, two single crystal cantilever beams in the size dependent regime were manufactured by ion beam milling and beams were bent with an indenter device. A crystal plasticity material model for large deformations was implemented in a finite element framework to further investigate the effect of boundary constraints. Simulations were performed using bulk material properties of single crystal copper without any special treatment for the strain gradients. The difference between the slopes of the experimental and the simulated force displacement curves suggested negligible amount of strain gradient hardening compared to the statistical hardening mechanisms.