Grain-scale micromechanics of polycrystal surfaces during plastic straining Original Research Article

This is a study on grain-scale micromechanics of polycrystal surfaces during plastic straining. We use Al–Mg–Si sheets (alloy AA6022) as model material. The work aims at understanding the relationship between microstrain heterogeneity and surface roughness in plastically strained polycrystals in terms of the surface and through-thickness microstructure. Experiments were conducted on polycrystals with identical composition but different processing and microstructures. We performed tensile and bending tests on sheet samples cut in transverse and rolling directions. We investigated the plastic surface microstrains (photogrametry), surface topography (confocal microscopy), particle distribution (metallography, SEM), microtexture (EBSD), and grain size distribution (EBSD) in the same sample regions. We also conducted in-situ straining experiments where the microtexture, surface topography, and stress–strain behavior were simultaneously determined. The results reveal a relationship between the heterogeneity of plastic surface microstrains, roughness, and microstructure. In particular a correlation could be established between microstrains and banded microtexture components (Cube, Goss, {111}[uvw]).