Multiscale modeling of twinning and detwinning behavior of HCP polycrystals

A multiscale scheme is presented here to capture the twinning and detwinning mechanisms during cyclic loading of HCP polycrystals. In the current framework, the crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) method is employed at the microstructural scale. The response of twinned regions at a material point is calculated using a novel homogenization scheme via a Taylor-type model. The homogenized behavior is then used in the CPFE to obtain the response of a polycrystal. An efficient rate-independent crystal plasticity model that has been incorporated into the open source PRISMS-Plasticity software is introduced here to capture the response of the twinned region. Accordingly, the corresponding algorithmic tangent modulus is derived. This multiscale scheme is validated against data available for the cyclic response of Mg alloy ZK60A. The results show that the multiscale model can capture the key elements of the sample response observed during the experiment. •A multiscale scheme is presented to capture the twinning and detwinning mechanisms during cyclic loading of HCP polycrystals.•The crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) method is employed at the microstructural scale.•The response of twinned regions at a material point is calculated using a novel homogenization scheme via a Taylor-type model.•An efficient rate-independent crystal plasticity model is introduced to capture the response of the twinned region.•This multiscale scheme is validated against data available for the cyclic response of Mg alloy ZK60A.