Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

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Micromechanical investigation of heterogeneous

microplasticity in ceramics deformed under
high conning stresses
D. Zhang a, M.S. Wu b,*
, R. Feng a

a
Department of Engineering Mechanics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0526, USA
b
School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue,
Singapore 639798, Singapore
Received 13 May 2003

Abstract

A computational modeling methodology for micromechanical analysis of polycrystalline hexagonal-structured

materials is developed. It consists of a microstructural model based on the two-dimensional Voronoi tessellation,
constitutive models for compression-dependent non-linear elasticity and crystal plasticity, and a solution technique
based on the Eshelbys method for generalized plane strain. Numerical simulations are carried out to determine if
heterogeneous microplasticity is a viable mechanism of deformation in ceramics undergoing uniaxial strain compres-
sion. The simulations using model parameters for a-6H silicon carbide show that a limited amount of microplasticity
resulting from basal slip alone or basal and prismatic slip is a viable mechanism for the observed material response
under shock wave compression. In particular, the predictions based on the basal and prismatic slip assumption match
the experimentally measured Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) and the post-HEL inelastic behavior up to a shock stress of
twice the HEL. The assumption of combined basal and prismatic slip results in 24% more mean eective plastic
deformation than the assumption of basal slip at twice the HEL. Furthermore, statistical analysis of the longitudinal
stress and eective plastic strain distributions shows that the micromechanical states in the polycrystal become
increasingly heterogeneous with increase in the applied compression.

2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Microplasticity; Basal and prismatic slip; Ceramics; Conning stress

1. Introduction Consequently, the strength of a ceramic under

Polycrystalline ceramics contain pores and
aws which are essentially nuclei of microcracks.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +65-6790-5545; fax: +65-6792-
4062/6791-1859.
E-mail address: mmswu@ntu.edu.sg (M.S. Wu).
conventional loading is generally limited by frac-
ture without discernable plasticity. However, un-
der high strain rate and high connement loading,
such as occurred during a plane shock wave
compression, many ceramics retain a very high
strength. Feng et al. (1998) determined the (uni-
axial strain) Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) of
polycrystalline a-6H silicon carbide (SiC) to be

0167-6636/$ - see front matter
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mechmat.2003.12.003
96 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

11.5 GPa under shock compression, and deduced
the maximum shear stress to be
4.5 GPa from the
measured longitudinal and lateral stresses. One
explanation for the high HEL and high post-HEL
strength in shocked ceramics is strain rate depen-
dent brittle to ductile transition: shock compres-
sion causes plastic ow in ceramics so that they do
not necessarily damage (Grady, 1996, 1998). An-
other explanation emphasizes the high inertial
connement accompanying plane shock wave
loading: the in-grain slipping in certain crystallo-
graphic systems is more favorable than shear
cracking because the high connement signi-
cantly increases the frictional resistance in the later
process (Feng et al., 1998).
There is ample evidence that ceramics do slip
under high connement and/or high temperature.
Bretheau et al. (1979) documented the plastic
deformation of a-phase aluminum oxide (Al2 O3 )
single crystals (which are typically treated as hex-
agonal-structured material) by slip in the basal,
prismatic and pyramidal systems at high temper-
atures T > 1025 C. Heuer et al. (1971) observed
non-basal slip in polycrystalline Al2 O3 deformed
at 1000 and 1400 C under connement. Castaing
et al. (1981) deduced from optical observations
prismatic slip in Al2 O3 single crystals subjected to
hydrostatic pressures of 0.51.5 GPa between 20
and 950 C. Generally speaking, the basal systems
{0 0 0 1}1 1

2 0 are the predominant slip systems
for most hexagonal crystals. Non-basal glide re-
quires a higher critical resolved shear stress.
Microscopy studies of ceramic samples recov-
ered after shock wave loading show that both mi-
croplasticity and microfracture are plausible
mechanisms under shock compression. For in-
stance, Merala et al. (1988) and Longy and Cag-
noux (1989) observed signicant microplasticity
(dislocation densities up to 1013 1015 m2 ) and
microfracture in several ceramics recovered after
shock compression. Whether microfracture was
induced during the loading or unloading (recovery)
phase is debatable, but it may be conjectured that
shock-compressed ceramics deform by microplas-
ticity or microplasticity and microfracture. De-
tailed understanding of these mechanisms is,
however, lacking. Some of the important unre-
solved issues include: (1) the relative extent of mi-
croplasticity, microfracture and other mechanisms
contributing to the inelastic deformation of
ceramics under shock compression, and (2) the
detailed physics and mechanics of these mecha-
nisms, e.g., the extent of slip system participation in
the case of microplasticity and the nature of
the microcracking (modes, intragranular or inter-
granular path, etc.). To advance fundamental
understanding in these issues, it is necessary to
employ micromechanics in the study of the defor-
mation of ceramics under high conning stresses.
An important need is the proper modeling of
the microscale heterogeneity, i.e., the spatial vari-
ation of the physical properties and geometrical
characteristics. For instance, the physical proper-
ties may be orientation-dependent and hence
anisotropic with respect to loading. In particular,
there exist elastic anisotropy (the elastic properties
of a crystal are direction-dependent) and plastic
anisotropy (slip system activation and the slip
magnitude are direction-dependent). Thus, hetero-
geneity results from dierent crystallographic
orientations at dierent locations. Similarly, het-
erogeneity also results from the variation of crystal
geometry (shape and size) with position. The
coupling of mechanical anisotropy and topological
variation can exert a signicant and complex
inuence on the microstructural stresses and also
on microscale processes such as microcrack
nucleation. Wu and Niu (1995) showed that crack
nucleation in a two-dimensional (2-D) Voronoi
model of polycrystalline ice was signicantly af-
fected by the elastic anisotropy and the random-
ness in the geometrical microstructure. Teng and
Lin (1995) showed that crystal elastic anisotropy
has a signicant eect on fatigue crack initiation
in an intermetallic nickelaluminum polycrystal
comprised of regular hexagons. We conjecture that
heterogeneity will also inuence the deformation
of ceramics under high conning stresses.
The primary objective of this research is to
investigate whether microplasticity is a plausible
mechanism of deformation of ceramics under
uniaxial strain compression, a condition which
mimics the high connement during the steady-
state phase of shock compression. Microfracture
will not be considered for the time being. A sec-
ondary objective is to study the statistics of the
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112
micromechanical states in the microstructurally
heterogeneous ceramics. The computed macro-
scopic response based on microplasticity will be
compared with the experiment measurements of
the steady-state response of polycrystalline a-6H
SiC subjected to shock wave compression. The
following issues will be given special attention: (1)
Can a limited extent of heterogeneous microplas-
ticity capture the essential characteristics of the
measured macroscopic response up to twice the
HEL, (2) What are the relative contributions of
dierent slip systems to the microplasticity, and (3)
What are the distributions of grain-scale stresses
and strains? In this paper we report the ndings
based on generalized plane strain modeling of
Voronoi polycrystal and allowing microplastic
deformation by both basal and prismatic slip.
To carry out the above-mentioned tasks, we
employ the analytical methodology described in
Section 2. The numerical results are then presented
in Section 3, and the conclusions are given in
Section 4.
2. Methodology
2.1. General framework and assumptions
An approximate analytical approach is used to
develop a computational method for analyzing
crystalcrystal interactions and microplasticity in
polycrystalline ceramics. This involves four as-
pects: generalized plane strain treatment, in-plane
microstructural modeling, in-plane micromechan-
ics of crystalcrystal interactions accounting for
heterogeneity, and three-dimensional (3-D) con-
stitutive modeling of a single crystal.
Generalized plane strain treatment. As shown in
Fig. 1, the macroscopic loading condition consid-
ered here is a steady state of uniaxial strain com-
pression, which approximates well the highly
conned deformation during the steady-state
phase of plane shock wave compression. The rapid
rise and release portions of the shock wave loading
are excluded from consideration. This is justied
by the observed weak rate dependence in the shock
response of ceramics (e.g., Feng et al., 1996). Al-
though the loading condition has transverse sym-
97
Isotropic Matrix
Remote
Uniaxial
Strain
Voronoi
x2 Crystal
Aggregate
x1 Triangular Field Elements
Fig. 1. An aggregate of 100 Voronoi crystals with 1311 trian-
gular eld elements in an isotropic matrix subjected to com-
pressive remote uniaxial strain loading.
metry with respect to the compression direction at
the macroscopic level, the problem is microscopi-
cally 3-D. To reduce the number of equations to a
computationally manageable level, we adopt the
generalized plane strain treatment, in which only a
material cross section initially parallel to the
compression direction is considered as the plane
for detailed microstructural modeling (x1 x2 plane
in Fig. 1). The variations of microstructures and
micromechanical states in the z direction are ne-
glected so that the total out-of-plane normal strain
is uniformly zero. Note that the material may still
move in the x3 direction, i.e., the total displace-
ment u3 need not be zero. This relaxation of the
out-of-plane constraint minimizes the eects of the
z direction simplication on the in-plane material
response. The generalized plane strain treatment
allows us to use 3-D material models but 2-D
calculations to analyze the problem of interest. In
the following, we discuss the implications of uni-
axial strain loading in the generalized plane strain
framework.
Under uniaxial strain compression in the x1
direction, the applied (macroscopic) total strain
components are given by e011 6 0 and e022 e033
e012 e023 e013 0. On the crystal scale, however,
the plastic strain components are not zero due to
general slip plane orientations and slip directions.
98 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112
Since symmetry with respect to uniaxial strain
compression must be respected, macroscopically
averaged (henceforth average) plastic normal
strain components may exist but average plastic
shear strain components are inadmissible. The
latter can be asserted as follows. The total applied
shear strains are zero, and therefore the average
elastic and plastic shear strains are either (1) non-
zero and equal but opposite in signs or (2) both
identically zero. Non-zero average elastic shear
strains support average shear stresses of either
sign, and this violates the symmetry of the stress
state with respect to uniaxial strain compression.
Thus, the average elastic and plastic shear strains
are both zero. In contrast, non-zero average elastic
and plastic normal strains do not violate the
symmetry, and the average elastic and plastic
normal strains in the x2 and x3 directions must be
equal and opposite.
Microstructural modeling. Macroscopically, the
ceramic polycrystal is assumed to be homogeneous
and isotropic. Mesoscopically, a sample of an
appropriate number of crystals is selected for de-
tailed analysis. This sample, seen as an inclusion
embedded in the homogeneous and isotropic ma-
trix, represents the inherent material heterogene-
ities. The 2-D Voronoi tessellation is used as the
in-plane microstructural fabric in this paper.
Voronoi diagrams represent distance relationships
and growth phenomena, with the characteristics
that all crystal nuclei appear simultaneously at
random positions and the growth rate of each is
the same in all directions. This results in a parti-
tion of space into polyhedral cells, each of which
consists of interior points closer to the nucleus
of the cell they belong to than to all other nuclei.
Assigned with randomly oriented crystallographic
bases, the Voronoi cells, shown in Fig. 1 as the
thick line polygons, serve as crystals. They are
further divided into smaller triangular eld ele-
ments (thin line triangles in Fig. 1), based on which
certain fundamental solutions are calculated. The
details for generating the Voronoi tessellation will
not be reviewed here as they are well-documented,
e.g., Kumar et al. (1996).
Micromechanics of crystalcrystal interaction.
The micromechanical behavior resulted from the
heterogeneities is analyzed by employing a distri-
bution of eigenstrains according to the general-
ized Eshelbys method (Teng and Lin, 1995).
Closed-form fundamental solutions for the micro-
structural stress eld resulting from the eigen-
strains are formulated for the generalized plane
strain condition. An algorithm to implement the
method for numerical solution is developed. The
details are explained in Section 2.2.
Modeling of single crystal plasticity and elastic-
ity. The material modeling considers ceramics with
hexagonal symmetry. The inelastic deformation of
the model ceramic (under macroscopically uniaxial
strain compression) is assumed to proceed by mi-
croplasticity without microcracking. While the
possible slip systems for closed-pack hexagonal
crystals are basal, prismatic and pyramidal, only
the following two possibilities are considered: (1)
basal slip only, and (2) basal and prismatic slip.
The crystallographic orientations of the two types
of slip are depicted in Fig. 2. Furthermore, volume
compression inuences on the elastic moduli of
ceramics (e.g., Yuan et al., 2001) are taken into
consideration by self-consistent non-linear model-
ing of the elastic response of individual crystals
(a)
(0001)
[ 1 2 1 0]
[2 1 1 0] [11 2 0]
(b)
(1 010 )
[ 1 2 1 0]
[2 1 1 0] [11 2 0]
Fig. 2. (a) Basal slip systems with the slip plane shaded;
(b) prismatic slip systems with the slip plane shaded.
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112 99

and that of the polycrystal matrix. The details are
given in Section 2.3.
2.2. Formulation of micromechanical analysis
Although the remote loading is uniaxial strain,
i.e., the only non-vanishing strain is in the com-
pression direction, locally, i.e., for the aggregate of
crystals chosen for micromechanical analysis, the
generalized plane strain condition is considered.
The analysis of crystalcrystal interactions is car-
ried out by combining the equivalent body force
and traction technique with the generalized Es-
helby technique (Teng and Lin, 1995).
outward unit normal Nj . Eqs. (5) show that
Cijkl eIkl;j and Cijkl eIkl Nj can be regarded as equiv-
alent body forces and tractions acting in a purely
linear elastic body if the components ekl are
interpreted as elastic strains. Thus, a body with a
distribution of inelastic strains eIij can be treated as
an elastic body with equivalent body forces and
tractions. The inuence stresses rSij x at point x
(x1 ; x2 ) caused by the equivalent forces and trac-
tions in the xk (k 1, 2, 3) directions at point x0
(x01 ; x02 ) can be written in terms of the Greens
functions Gkij x; x0 as:
Z
rij x Cklmn Gkij x; x0 eImn;l x0 dX
S

X
Equivalent body forces and tractions. Consider a Z
two-dimensional, globally isotropic polycrystal Cklmn Gkij x; x0 eImn x0 Nl dC: 6
C
with a distribution of inelastic strains. The inelastic
strains can be a combination of plastic strains, Note that repeated indices, including k, imply
initial strains, thermal strains, etc. Mathemati- summation. The Greens functions are the stresses
cally, the generalized plane strain deformation is at x due to a unit point load applied at x0 . They
given by: can be derived from the equilibrium equations in
ui ui x1 ; x2 ; 1 terms of displacement components, which are ex-
pressed as:
where i 1, 2, 3 and ui is the displacement com-
ponent along the xi direction. The strain compo- k 2lu1;11 ku2;21 lu1;22 u2;12 f1 0;
nents are: 7a
1
eij ui;j uj;i eEij eIij ; 2 lu1;21 u2;11 ku1;12 k 2lu2;22 f2 0;
2
7b
where eEij and eIij are the components of the elastic
and inelastic strains, respectively. For isotropic lu3;11 u3;22 f3 0: 7c
linear elastic solids, the elastic constants are:
Eqs. (7a) and (7b) yield two simultaneous equa-
Cijkl kdij dkl ldik djl dil djk ; 3
tions in u1 and u2 that do not include u3 They are
where k and l are the Lame constants and dij is the the same as a 2-D plane strain problem. The
Kronecker delta. The stress components are given Greens functions in Eq. (6) for unit point load at
by Hookes law and can be written as: x0 in the x1 and x2 directions can hence be written
as (Telles, 1983):
rij Cijkl eEkl Cijkl ekl  eIkl : 4
1 1

The equilibrium equations and the Cauchy Gcab x; x0 1  2mr;a dbc r;b dca
4p1  m r
formula give 
 r;c dab 2r;a r;b r;c ; 8a
rij;j fi Cijkl ekl;j  eIkl;j fi 0; 5a
Gc33 x; x0 mGc11 x; x0 Gc22 x; x0 ; 8b
rij Nj Cijkl ekl  eIkl Nj TiN ; 5b
Gc13 x; x0 Gc23 x; x0  0; 8c
where fi x1 ; x2 is the body force along the xi -axis
in the body X, and TiN is the ith component of the where a; b; c 1, 2 only, r is the distance between
traction acting on the boundary C of X with the the points x and x0 , and m is the Poissons ratio. Eq.
100 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

(7c), represented by u3 , can be solved as the fun- rR Xp GXp ; Xq eI Xq ; 14

damental solution for the 2-D Laplace equation
(Brebbia, 1978). Combining the fundamental where the components of the source-eld inuence
solution with Eqs. (2)(4), the Greens functions function G are:
for unit point load at x0 in the x3 direction can be Gijmn Xp ; Xq
written as: " Z Z
1
1 1 Cklmn Gkij x; x0 Nl dCq dXp
G3a3 x; x0 r;a ; 9a Ap Xp Cq
2p r #
G3ab x; x0 G333 x; x0  0: 9b  H Xp ; Xq Cijmn Xq : 15

The simplifying assumption that the strains and

Eq. (15) represents the microstructural stresses in
stresses are constant in all the elements Xp into
the eld element Xp caused by the unit inelastic
which X is divided is now made. Consider then the
strain in the source element Xq , assuming that the
constant inelastic strains eIij in the source element
stress and strain elds in each element are uniform.
Xq with boundary Cq . Eq. (6) reduces to:
Z The Voronoi crystals are meshed into arbitrary
rSij x Cklmn eImn Xq Gkij x; x0 Nl dCq ; 10 triangular elements, which are in general scalene.
Cq To simplify the integrations involved in Eq. (15),
each triangular eld element is further divided into
and the microstructural (residual) stress rR
ij due to two right-angle triangles Xp1 and Xp2 by drawing a
the equivalent body forces and tractions associated
perpendicular line from the vertex opposite the
with Xq can be written as:
" longest side to that side as shown in Fig. 3(a). The
Z
local coordinate system is dened such that the x01 -
R
rij x Cklmn Gkij x; x0 Nl dCq axis is parallel to the longest line of the eld ele-
Cq
#
 H x; Xq Cijmn Xq eImn Xq ; 11
Field element p
x 2
where H x; Xq is dened as:

1; x 2 Xq ; x1
H x; Xq 12
0; x 62 Xq :
Since eImn are associated with Xq , the stress
Cijmn Xq eImn Xq is subtracted from the inuence
stress rsij x for x 2 Xq in Eq. (11). The constant (a)
stress in the eld element Xp is then taken to be the
x2
area-average of Eq. (11): x 2
Z
R 1
rij Xp rR x dXp
Ap Xp ij
" Z Z x1
1
Cklmn Gkij x; x0 Nl dCq dXp
Ap Xp Cq
# x1

 H Xp ; Xq Cijmn Xq eImn Xq ; 13 (b)

Fig. 3. (a) Division of a eld element into two right-angle ele-
where H 1 if p q and otherwise zero, and Ap is ments; (b) relation between the global coordinate system x1 x2
the area of Xp . Eq. (13) can be written as: and a local coordinate system x01 x02 .
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112 101

ment. Hence, in the local coordinate system the
source-eld inuence function G0 is given by Eq.
(15) with the outer area integral split into two area
integrals over Xp1 and Xp2 . Supposing that the
angle between the x01 -axis and the global x1 -axis is
a, as shown in Fig. 3(b), then the source-element
inuence function G in the global system can be
written in the matrix form:
0
G T1
G G TG ;
where the transformation matrix TG between the
local and global systems is:
stress due to the plastic strains and eigenstrains in
all elements can be written using Eq. (14) as:
X X
rRi Gij ej Gik ePk ; 1 6 i; j; k 6 N ; 19
j k
where N is the total number of elements in the
domain. Note that the subscripts of the symbols
here represent elements rather than components.
Under generalized plane strain, the applied strain
16 component e033 and the disturbance strain compo-
nent e33 are both taken to be zero. The non-
T
zero components are e0 fe011 ; e022 ; e023 ; e031 ; e012 g

2 3
cos2 a sin2 a 0 0 0 2 sin a cos a
6 sin2 a cos2 a 0 0 0 2 sin a cos a 7
6 7
6 0 0 1 0 0 0 7
TG 6
6
7:
7 17
6 0 0 0 cos a  sin a 0 7
4 0 0 0 sin a cos a 0 5
2 2
 sin a cos a sin a cos a 0 0 0 cos a  sin a

Note that the form of the microstructural stresses and e fe11 ; e22 ; e23 ; e31 ; e12 gT . The microstructural
and inelastic strains corresponding to Eq. (17) stress in element i of Eq. (19) can be written in a
R T
are rR frR R R R R
11 ; r22 ; r33 ; r23 ; r31 ; r12 g and eI dierent way according to Eshelbys method, i.e.
I I I I I I T
fe11 ; e22 ; e33 ; e23 ; e31 ; e12 g , where T denotes the rR  P
i Dei  Cei ei ; 1 6 i 6 N; 20
transpose.
Generalized Eshelbys method. Eshelbys inclu- where
sion method was originally used to solve the 2 3
k 2l k 0 0 0
inhomogeneity problem involving an ellipsoidal 6 7
inclusion in a linear matrix (Eshelby, 1957). This 6 k k 2l 0 0 0 7
6 7
method can be generalized to solve inhomoge- 6 k k 0 0 0 7
D6
6
7;
neous problems for arbitrary shapes of inclusion, 6 0 0 2l 0 0 7
7
e.g., Teng and Lin (1995). The idea is to transform 6 7
4 0 0 0 2l 0 5
the inhomogeneities due to the elastic anisotropy
of the crystals into certain eigenstrains e 0 0 0 0 2l
T 2 3
fe11 ; e22 ; e33 ; e23 ; e31 ; e12 g . For an inclusion or k 2l k k 0 0 0
crystal with anisotropic elasticity described by the 6 k k 2l k 0 0 0 7
6 7
6 6 matrix C and embedded in a homogenous 6 7
6 k k k 2l 0 0 0 7
matrix with isotropic elasticity described by the C6
6
7:
6 0 0 0 2l 0 0 7
7
6 6 matrix C, Eshelbys method requires that: 6 7
4 0 0 0 0 2l 0 5
C e0 e  eP  Ce0 e  eP  e ; 18
0 0 0 0 0 2l
0
where e is the 6 1 array of applied far-eld 21
strains, e the 6 1 array of disturbance strains in-
side the element, and eP the 6 1 array of plastic Also, the inverse of the 6 5 matrix D is the 5 6
strains. For each ith element, the microstructural matrix:
102 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

2 3 Once the eigenstrains are determined from Eq.

1 m m 0 0 0
6 m 1 m 0 0 0 7 (23), they are used to calculate the microstructural
1 6 7 stresses via Eq. (19), which in turn are used to
D1 6 0 0 0 1m 0 0 77;
E64 0 calculate the total stresses for each element.
0 0 0 1m 0 5
0 0 0 0 0 1m
2.3. Crystal plasticity and non-linear elasticity
22

where E is the Youngs modulus. Crystal plasticity. A simple model of crystal

The plastic strains ePi and the eigenstrains ei are plasticity is adopted for the calculations. The
unknown. The plastic strains ePi are dependent on plastic strain corresponding to a slip system in a
the resolved shear stress component of the total particular slipped grain is given by:
stress in the particular slip system. The method to ePij aij c; 27
calculate ePi is outlined in Section 2.3. Combining
Eqs. (18)(20), a set of linear algebraic equations where
are obtained with the eigenstrains ei as unknown aij 12mi nj mj ni : 28
(assuming ePi are known):
X X In Eq. (28), mi are the components of the unit
Tei Sij ej qi C  TePi  Sik ePk ; vector normal to the slip plane and ni are the those
j k of the unit vector in the direction of slip. The
1 6 i; j; k 6 N ; 23 plastic shear strain c can be estimated as, e.g.,
Sarfarazi (1989):
where
jsj  sc
T D D1 C; Sij D D1  IGij ; cF signs; 29
l
qi D  D e0 : 24 where F is a parameter depending on grain shape

Here I is the 6 6 identity matrix, and D is a 6 5 and material properties, s is the resolved shear
matrix formed by deleting the third column of the stress corresponding to an activated slip system in
C matrix. For oriented hexagonal crystals, if the an element and can be calculated according to
direction cosines between the global system s rij aij ; 30
x1 x2 x3 and the crystallographic base x001 x002 x003
(with x003 perpendicular to the basal plane) are de- and sc is the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS)
noted by the usual symbols l1 , m1 , n1 , etc., C can for the slip system. When the resolved shear stress
be calculated by: reaches its critical value, slip is activated. If several
slip systems are activated inside an element, then
C T1 
r Cg Tr ; 25 the total plastic strain is the sum of plastic strains
in all activated slip systems, i.e.
where Cg denotes the anisotropic elastic stiness in X
n
the crystallographic base and the transformation ePij aij cq : 31
matrix Tr is: q1

2 3
l21 m21 n21 2m1 n1 2n1 l1 2l1 m1
6 l2 m22 n22 2m2 n2 2n2 l2 2l2 m2 7
6 22 7
6 l m23 n23 2m3 n3 2n3 l3 2l3 m3 7
Tr 6 3
6 l2 l3
7: 26
6 m2 m3 n2 n3 m2 n3 n2 m3 n2 l3 l2 n3 l2 m3 m2 l3 7
7
4 l3 l1 m3 m1 n3 n1 m3 n1 n3 m1 n3 l1 l3 n1 l3 m1 m3 l1 5
l1 l2 m1 m2 n1 n2 m1 n2 n1 m2 n1 l2 l1 n2 l1 m2 m1 l2
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112
In Eq. (30), the components rij of the total stress r
in each element k are calculated as the sum of the
microstructural stress rRk determined from Eqs.
(23) and (19), and the average stress due to the
applied uniaxial strain De0  C
eP , where
eP is the
area-averaged plastic strain. This can be written in
matrix form as:
1X
rk De0  C
eP rR
k ;
eP Ak ePk ;
A k
where Ak and A are the area of element k and the
total area of the polycrystal, respectively. In the
actual calculations, the plastic strains are initially
assumed to be zero. The microstructural stress is
then computed using the generalized Eshelbys
technique, and the total stress estimated from Eq.
(32) is then used to determine the resolved shear
stress and hence the plastic strains. The micro-
structural stress is then re-calculated taking into
consideration these plastic strains, and the total
stress in Eq. (32) is updated. Numerical simula-
tions reveal that the results converge quickly.
Crystal elasticity: volume compression depen-
dence. The formulation presented so far is based
on the assumption that both the elasticity of the
individual crystals and that of the corresponding
isotropic polycrystal are independent of deforma-
tion. However, for the loading condition of inter-
est, i.e., macroscopic uniaxial strain compression
resulting in stresses beyond 10 GPa, the material
volume strain may be large enough to cause
noticeable stiening in the elastic bulk response.
Yuan et al. (2001) measured elastic wave speeds in
shock-compressed SiC for volume compressions
up to
4% and found that the tangent elastic bulk
moduli of the material increase with volume
compression. To account for such non-linear
behavior, we need to treat the elastic stiness
constants as functions of the compressive vol-
ume strain eV eii . Consequently, the stresselas-
tic strain relations for both the matrix and single
crystal are in the integral form, i.e.,
Z gate. Therefore, for a given far-eld load in
r CeV deE in matrix; 33
Z obtain the corresponding D. We then replace C,
r T1  E C1 , Cg , D, and D1 in the formulation of gen-
r Cg eV Tr de in crystals;
103
T
where r fr11 ; r22 ; r33 ; r23 ; r31 ; r12 g is the Cau-
T
chy stress, eE feE11 ; eE22 ; eE33 ; eE23 ; eE31 ; eE12 g the elastic
strain, CeV the 6 6 matrix of compression-
dependent tangent elasticity of the isotropic
matrix, Cg eV the 6 6 matrix of compression-
dependent tangent elasticity of the anisotropic
crystals in the local coordinates, and Tr the
transformation matrix given by Eq. (26). However,
32 Eqs. (33) and (34) cannot be directly implemented
in the generalized Eshelbys method, which does
not track the stressstrain path leading to the
mechanical state it solves for.
To overcome this diculty, we rst solve Eqs.
(33) and (34) using the assumption of proportional
elastic loading, i.e., eE =eV remains constant along
the loading path. This assumption allows us to
write:
 E 
E e eE
de d eV deV : 35
eV eV
Hence, Eqs. (33) and (34) can be rewritten as
 Z 
1
r CeV deV eE  CeV eE in matrix;
eV
36
 Z 
1
r T1
r Cg eV deV Tr eE
eV

 T1
r Cg eV Tr e
E
in crystals; 37
where CeV is the 6 6 matrix of compression-
dependent secant elastic stiness of the isotropic
matrix and Cg eV that of the anisotropic crystals in
the crystallographic bases. They can be calculated
analytically as long as CeV and Cg eV are
explicitly prescribed. Note that eV is an elastic
volume strain if incompressible plasticity is con-
sidered. The assumption is an accurate description
in the matrix and an approximation which is
accurate on average in the crystals. For an applied
uniaxial compressive strain e011 , eV equals e011 exactly
in the matrix and on average in the crystal aggre-
terms of e011 , we can determine CeV e011 and
Cg eV e011 . Deleting the third column of C, we
34
eralized Eshelbys method by C, C1 , Cg , D, and
104 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

D1 , respectively and determine D by deleting the surements for various volume compressions (e.g.,
third column of C T1 
r Cg Tr . In other words, the Yuan et al., 2001). Integrating CeV as dened in
material whose elastic response is non-linear is now Eq. (36) gives

2 3
L0 1 n k0 1 f k0 1 f 0 0 0
6 k0 1 f L0 1 n k0 1 f 0 0 0 7
6 7
6 k0 1 f k0 1 f L0 1 n 0 0 0 7
CeV 6
6
7;
7 41a
6 0 0 0 l0 1 v 0 0 7
4 0 0 0 0 l0 1 v 0 5
0 0 0 0 0 l0 1 v

replaced with an equivalent ctitious material with

having linear elasticity described by the 6 6 matrix k0 L0  2l0 ; 41b
C in the matrix and the 6 6 matrix Cg in the
crystals. The only change in the plasticity calcula- and
tion is to replace D by D and C by C, see Eq. (32). aL eV ak e V al e V
n ; f ; and v : 41c
For the moderate compressive volume strains 2 2 2
examined in this paper (up to 6%), it is sucient to The measurements for determining the com-
consider CeV and Cg eV as linear functions of eV . pression-dependent stiening coecients of the
Specically, the diagonal components of CeV are: components of Cg eV are rarely available and
C11 C22 C33 L0 1 aL eV ; 38 dicult to obtain. For hexagonal crystals, we
propose the following estimate:
C44 C55 C66 l0 1 al eV ; 39
Cg eV
and the non-zero o-diagonal components are: 2 3
0 0 0
C12 C21 C13 C31 C23 C32 k0 1 ak eV ; C11 gL C12 gk C13 gk 0 0 0
6 0 0 0 7
6 C21 gk C22 gL C23 gk 0 0 0 7
40a 6 0 7
6 C31 gk C32 gk C33 gL
0 0
0 0 0 7
6 6 0
7;
with 6 0 0 0
C44 gl 0 0 7 7
6 0 0 0 0 0
C55 gl 0 7
L0 aL  2l0 al 4 5
ak : 40b 0 0 0 0 0 0
C66 gl
L0  2l0
Here L0  k0 2l0 , l0 and k0 are respectively the 42a
longitudinal modulus, shear modulus and dilata-
tional Lame constant in the uncompressed initial with
state, and aL and al are the compression-depen- gL 1 aL eV ; gl 1 al eV and gk 1 ak eV :
dent stiening coecients of the longitudinal and
shear moduli, respectively. The values of L0 , l0 , aL 42b
and al may be determined from wave speed mea- Integrating this Cg eV as dened in Eq. (37) gives

2 0 0 0
3
C11 1 n C12 1 f C13 1 f 0 0 0
6 C 0 1 f C 0 1 n C 0 1 f 0 0 0 7
6 21 22 23 7
6 C 0 1 f C 0 1 f C 0 1 n 0 0 0 7
Cg eV 6

6
31 32 33
0
7:
7 43
6 0 0 0 C 44 1 v 0 0 7
4 0 0 0 0 0
C55 1 v 0 5
0
0 0 0 0 0 C66 1 v
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112
Here n, f and v are the same as dened in Eq.
(41c). On average, this estimate is expected to be
consistent with CeV . A verication calculation
will be presented later.
3. Numerical simulations under remote uniaxial
strain
The model parameters are given and explained
in Section 3.1. Using these parameters, numerical
simulations are carried out for a polycrystalline a-
6H SiC subjected to uniaxial strain compression.
The numerical results will be grouped into those
pertaining to the macroscopic response, which will
be compared to the results of shock wave com-
pression experiments (Section 3.2), and those per-
taining to the micromechanical behavior, which is
investigated statistically (Section 3.3).
3.1. Parameters for simulations
Elastic parameters. The ve independent elastic
constants of undeformed a-6H SiC single crys-
tal as determined by Brillouin scattering are:
0 0 0 0
C11 501, C33 553, C44 163, C12 111, and
0 mental data for polycrystalline SiC. The Voigt
C13 52 GPa (Kamitani et al., 1997). The com-
pression-dependent stiening coecients of tan-
gent elasticity of the material are determined from
the longitudinal and shear wave speeds measured
in shock-compressed a-6H SiC polycrystal (Yuan
et al., 2001). The results are aL 2:98 and
al 0:266, from which ak 14:44 is calculated
using Eq. (40b).
Slip systems and critical resolved shear stresses.
The possible slip systems in hexagonal crystals are
the basal f0 0 0 1gh1 1
2 0i, prismatic f1
1 0 0g


h1 1 2 0i and pyramidal systems. We consider two
slip conditions: (1) slip may occur on basal planes
only, and (2) slip may occur on basal and prismatic
planes. Fig. 2(a) and (b) represents the slip planes
and slip directions for the basal and prismatic
systems, respectively. Furthermore, since the
maximum shear stress supported by SiC at HEL is
4.5 GPa (Feng et al., 1998), we conjecture that the
CRSS for the basal system in SiC is below 4.5
GPa, and lies in the range of 3.04.5 GPa. The
CRSS for the prismatic system is taken to be
105
higher than that for the basal system. Also, the
parameter F in Eq. (29) is taken to be 0.9.
Voronoi cells and triangular elements. An
aggregate of 100 Voronoi crystals within a unit
square is constructed (thick line polygons in
Fig. 1). The crystals are meshed into 1311 trian-
gular eld elements (thin line triangles in Fig. 1).
The crystallographic orientations of the crystals
are assigned randomly. Analysis of Voronoi
polycrystals with various crystal populations
shows that about 100 crystals are sucient for
representing polycrystal behavior. All results are
generated using 100 crystals, except for a veri-
cation study comparing the results obtained from
polycrystals containing 50, 100 and 150 crystals.
3.2. Numerical resultsmacroscopic response
Elasticity of the Voronoi polycrystal. The com-
ponents of tangent elasticity matrix specied in
Eqs. (42) are veried for the given initial state
single crystal elastic constants and various eV val-
ues by the Voigt (constant-strain) averaging,
resulting in corresponding isotropic tangent elastic
moduli that can be compared with the experi-
equations relating the elastic properties of a hexa-
gonal crystal to those of the corresponding iso-
tropic polycrystal are (Hirth and Lothe, 1992):
L 8C11 4C13 3C33 8C44 =15; 44
l 7C11  5C12 2C33 12C44  4C13 =30;
45
where C11 , C12 , C13 , C33 and C44 are functions of eV
as dened in Eqs. (42), e.g., C11 here equals
0
C11 1 aL eV . From the elastic wave speed mea-
surements in shock-compressed a-6H SiC poly-
crystal (Yuan et al., 2001), the following two
isotropic modulusvolume strain relations can be
determined:
L 470 1436eV GPa; 46
l 190 92eV GPa: 47
The bulk modulus K can be calculated from L and
l as
106 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

Table 1
Comparison of the longitudinal moduli L, shear moduli l and bulk moduli K obtained experimentally and by the Voigt average of
single crystal elastic constants corrected for pressure at various applied longitudinal strains e011
e011 L (GPa) l (GPa) K (GPa)
Experiment Voigt Experiment Voigt Experiment Voigt
0.01 484.36 492.09 190.92 194.62 229.80 232.60
0.02 498.72 505.58 191.84 195.70 242.93 244.65
0.025 505.90 512.33 192.30 196.24 249.50 250.68
0.03 513.08 519.08 192.76 196.78 256.07 256.70
0.035 520.26 525.82 193.22 197.32 262.63 262.72
0.04 527.44 532.57 193.68 197.87 269.20 268.75

K L  4l=3: 48 line joined by lled circles represents the numerical

results of the generalized Eshelbys method with
Table 1 compares the values of the longitudinal the secant elasticity stiness matrices determined
and shear moduli obtained from the Voigt equa- using Eqs. (41) and (43). The numerical results,
tions [Eqs. (44) and (45)] with those from experi- based on 100 simulated Voronoi crystals with 1311
ment data [Eqs. (46) and (47)] for volume strains triangular eld elements, compare very well with
between 0.01 and 0.04. The bulk moduli as deter- the experimental measurements. It is observed that
mined from Eq. (48) for the two cases are also the slope drm =de011 of the curve increases with e011
compared in the table. The overall agreement ( eV under uniaxial strain compression), i.e., the
suggests that the proposed form of the crystal bulk modulus increases with volume strain, indi-
stiness matrix corrected for the volume com- cating a stiening of the bulk response of shocked
pression eect is appropriate. SiC.
As a further verication of the elastic model, Inuence of CRSS. Fig. 5 compares the model
Fig. 4 plots the mean stress rm rii =3 (positive in predictions of the macroscopic longitudinal, lat-
compression) versus the applied uniaxial com- eral and mean stresses (area-weighted average
pressive strain. The solid line shows the experi-
mental results of Feng et al. (1998), while the solid
30
Experimental results
18 25 cb = 3.5 GPa
16 cb = 4.3 GPa
Experimental results
14 Nonlinear elasticity model 20
Stresses, GPa

Longitudinal Mean stress

Mean stress, GPa

12 stress
15
10 HEL
8 10
6
5 Lateral stress
4
2 0
0 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 Applied longitudinal strain
Applied longitudinal strain
Fig. 5. Comparison of computed and measured uniaxial strain
Fig. 4. Comparison of computed and measured compressive compression response of polycrystalline a-6H SiC. Only basal
mean stress versus longitudinal strain relations for polycrys- slip is permitted in the calculations and the results for two
talline a-6H SiC. The measurements are from the shock wave values of scb (CRSS for basal slip) are presented. The mea-
experiments of Feng et al. (1998). Note the stiening of the surements are from the shock wave experiments on the material
mean stress response with increasing compressive strain. and the measured HEL stress is 11.5 GPa (Feng et al., 1998).
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112
values) versus the applied uniaxial compressive
strain with the experiment data of Feng et al.
(1998). In these model predictions, only basal slip
is assumed and two values of the CRSS are used:
scb 3:5 GPa (the lines joined by lled circles) and
scb 4:3 GPa (the lines joined by lled triangles).
Three signicant points can be made. First, the
increase of CRSS from 3.5 to 4.3 GPa causes an
increase in the longitudinal stress but a decrease in
the lateral stress, while it does not inuence the
mean stress. Second, the HEL, the point at which
transition to a softer response occurs, should be
higher for the larger CRSS value. This is because
the microplasticity-induced non-linearity will be
initiated at the larger CRSS. A close examination
of the experimental curve suggests that the HEL
occurs at approximately e011 0:022 with the cor-
responding longitudinal stress of 11.5 GPa. Third,
the agreement of the three stress measures with the
experimental data is very close over the range
0 < e011 < 0:043 and is still acceptable for 0:043 <
e011 < 0:05. In particular, the softening behavior of
the longitudinal stress and the stiening response
of the lateral and mean stresses are all captured by
the model predictions. The discrepancy for e011 >
0:043 may be attributable to the assumption that
only basal slip operates.
Inuence of activated slip systems. Fig. 6 plots
the longitudinal, lateral and mean stresses versus
the uniaxial compressive strain for two slip
assumptions: (a) basal and prismatic slip with
CRSSs of scb 3:5 GPa and scp 6:5 GPa, and
(b) basal and prismatic slip with CRSSs of
scb 4:3 GPa and scp 7:5 GPa. The assumed
values of scb are the same as those in Fig. 5, where
only basal slip is assumed. Comparison of the re-
sults in the two gures shows that the activation of
prismatic slip makes the longitudinal stress re-
sponse softer and the lateral stress response stier.
It can be observed that the t of the model pre-
dictions to the experiment data of Feng et al.
(1998), especially in case (b), is now better than
that in Fig. 5. This suggests that basal slip alone
may not be sucient for explaining the inelastic
behavior of SiC, especially after 1.5 times the
HEL, and that the inuence of prismatic slip on
the macroscopic response of shocked SiC may be
signicant. In fact, the experimental data for the
107
30
Experimental results
25 cb = 3.5, cp = 6.5 GPa
cb = 4.3, cp = 7.5 GPa
Stresses, GPa
20
Longitudinal Mean stress
15 stress
HEL
10
5 Lateral stress
0
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Applied longitudinal strain
Fig. 6. Comparison of uniaxial strain compression response
(calculated from two sets of scb and scp , i.e., CRSSs for basal
and prismatic slip) and measured shock compression data
(Feng et al., 1998) for polycrystalline a-6H SiC. Good agree-
ment is evident for the prediction based on the higher CRSS
values up to the compressive strain of 0.06.
longitudinal stress are very well-captured by the
model predictions using scb 4:3 GPa and scp
7:5 GPa up to e011 0:06 (corresponding to a
longitudinal stress of 24.3 GPa or about twice the
HEL stress).
3.3. Numerical resultsmicroscopic analysis
Analysis of longitudinal stress distribution.
Fig. 7(a) plots the histogram of the longitudinal
stress spectrum within the SiC polycrystal at
e011 0:03 (beyond the HEL). The theoretical
Gaussian t superimposed on the histogram shows
that the distribution is essentially Gaussian. To
investigate the dependence of the longitudinal
stress distribution on the applied compressive
uniaxial strain, the theoretical Gaussian curves
obtained by tting the histograms for e011 values
from 0.03 to 0.06 are plotted in Fig. 7(b), where
the ordinate represents the volume fraction and
the abscissa represents the normalized longitudinal
stress, dened as the longitudinal stress divided by
its mean. It can be observed from Fig. 7(b) that the
standard deviation of the distribution increases
with the volume strain, suggesting that the longi-
tudinal stress becomes increasingly heterogeneous
as the material is uniaxially compressed to a higher
volume strain. Table 2 shows the evolution of the
108 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

12 distributions as e011 increases from 0.02 to 0.06.

These statistical measures are computed by the
110 = 0.03
10 (a) following equations for mean, standard deviation
and coecient of variation respectively:
Volume fraction (%)

8
Gaussian fit s
Xn X n
6

r ri pi ; S ri  r
2 pi ; CV S=

r;
i1 i1
4
49
2
where pi Ai =A, Ai and ri are respectively the area
0 and stress magnitude for the ith element, A is the
12 13 14 15 16 17 total area, and n is the total number of elements.
Longitudinal stress, GPa
It is interesting to observe that although the
10 standard deviation increases with e011 for both the
110 = 0.03 longitudinal and lateral stresses, the coecient of
(b) 110 = 0.04
8 variation increases for the longitudinal stress but
Volume fraction (%)

0
11 = 0.05 stays approximately the same for the lateral stress
6 11 = 0.06
0 after e022 0:03. This last result indicates that rel-
ative to the mean, the spread of the lateral stress
4
does not change signicantly with e011 after the
HEL. Table 2 also shows that the mean of the
longitudinal stress distribution varies from 9.8
2
GPa at e011 0:02 to 24.3 GPa at e011 0:06.
Clearly, all the mean values of the longitudinal
0
0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 stress in Table 2 match very closely with the
Normalized longitudinal stress
experimentally measured macroscopic longitudinal
stresses at the same volume strains, see Fig. 5 or
Fig. 7. Statistical distributions of longitudinal stress in Voronoi Fig. 6.
polycrystal undergoing combined basal and prismatic slip Table 3 compares the mean (i.e., area-average)
(scb 4:3 GPa and scp 7:5 GPa): (a) Statistical data and
of the longitudinal stress r
11 , the mean of the
Gaussian t for longitudinal stress at the compressive strain of
0.03; (b) comparison of Gaussian curves for normalized longi- microstructural longitudinal stress r
R
11 and the ra-
R
tudinal stress distributions at four compressive strains: tio of the means r r11 for three polycrystals

11 =

e011 0:03, 0.04, 0.05 and 0.06. containing 50, 100 and 150 crystals, respectively.
The results for 100 and 150 crystals are in close
mean, standard deviation and coecient of vari- agreement, and dier somewhat from those for 50
ation of both the longitudinal and lateral stress crystals. The mean r
R11 should be zero for random

Table 2
The dependence of the mean, standard deviation and coecient of variation of the longitudinal and lateral stresses for scb 4:3 GPa
(CRSS for basal slip) and scp 7:5 GPa (CRSS for prismatic slip) in ve compressed states: e011 0:02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05 and 0.06
e011 Longitudinal stress (GPa) Lateral stress (GPa)
Mean Standard deviation Coecient of Mean Standard deviation Coecient of
variation variation
0.02 9.797 0.2858 0.0292 2.109 0.2522 0.1196
0.03 14.55 0.5373 0.0369 3.354 0.6932 0.2067
0.04 18.42 1.0497 0.0570 5.425 1.3384 0.2467
0.05 21.58 1.4130 0.0655 8.134 2.0803 0.2557
0.06 24.25 1.7239 0.0711 11.32 2.8885 0.2552
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112 109

Table 3 0.5
The dependence of the mean of the longitudinal stress r
11 , the Material remains elastic: 58%

R
mean of the longitudinal microstructural stress r 11 , and their 0.4
ratio r rR

11 =
11 on the crystal populations

Number of
11 (GPa)
R
R 0.3

r r 11 (GPa) r r11
11 =

crystals
0.2
50 14.64 0.1152 7.869e)3
100 14.55 0.1541 1.059e)2 0.1
150 14.57 0.1521 1.044e)2 (a) 11 = 0.03
0
0.0

Effective plastic strain (%)

1.5 Material remains elastic: 36%
c-axis orientations and grain shapes. The value
obtained for 100 crystals is
0.01 times the lon- 1.2
gitudinal stress; this is acceptably small. Moreover, 0.9
close match is obtained between theoretical results
0.6
obtained using 100 crystals and the experimental
data shown in Section 3.2. To reduce computa- 0.3
tional cost, we have thus selected 100 crystals for (b) 11 = 0.04
0
0.0
our investigations.
Analysis of eective plastic strain distribution. 3.5 Material remains elastic: 24%
The eective plastic strain is dened by: 3.0
r 2.5
P 2 P P
ee e e ; 50 2.0
3 ij ij
1.5
where ePij are the plastic strain components, which 1.0
are constant in each element. Fig. 8 (a)(c) plots 0.5
respectively the histograms of the ePe distribution (c) 110 = 0.06
0.0
for e011 0:03, 0.04 and 0.06, assuming possible 0 2 4 6 8
slip in basal systems with scb 4:3 GPa. The vol- Volume fraction (%)
ume fractions of material remaining elastic are also
shown in the gures. At e011 0:03, a signicant Fig. 8. Statistical distribution of eective plastic strain in
Voronoi polycrystal due to basal slip (scb 4:3 GPa) at three
volume fraction (
58%) of the crystals remains
compressive strains: (a) 3%; (b) 4%; and (c) 6%.
elastic with no plastic deformation and the distri-
bution is fairly uniform. At larger applied strains,
the elastic volume fraction decreases and the dis- twice the HEL. It is important to note that al-
tribution shape tapers o at the two ends. though 98% of the crystals have slipped, the
Fig. 9(a) and (b) shows the histograms for eective plastic strains remain small in magnitude,
e011 0:04 and 0.06, generated under the assump- varying between 0 and 0.035. The maximum pre-
tion that slip can occur by both basal and pris- dicted value of 0.035 is 1.7 times smaller than the
matic glide with scb 4:3 and scp 7:5 GPa. Note applied uniaxial strain of 0.06. Comparing Figs. 8
that prismatic slip is not activated at e011 0:03. and 9, there is also an obvious change in the dis-
Compared to the case of pure basal slip, the tribution shape. At e011 0:06, there are two con-
magnitude of the maximum eective plastic strain centrations of volume fraction: one is at the
does not change drastically but the elastic volume eective plastic strain of 0.0240.028, as is the case
fraction decreases. About 2% of the material re- in Fig. 8(c), while the other is at the strain of
mains elastic at 6% compression strain, compared 0.0110.015, which can be attributed to prismatic
to about 24% when only basal slip is activated. slip. The results in Figs. 8 and 9 suggest that
This shows that slip has occurred in most of the prismatic slip may contribute signicantly to
crystals at this applied strain, corresponding to microplasticity beyond the HEL, and that the
110 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112

expected), but the reverse is true for the standard

1.5 Material remains elastic: 31% deviation and the coecient of variation. The
1.2 eective plastic strain is less heterogeneous if the
crystals deform by both basal and prismatic slip
0.9
than if they deform by basal slip alone. Third, the
0.6 mean of the eective plastic strain distribution
Effective plastic strain (%)

0.3 assuming both basal and prismatic slip is about

(a)
0.0
3.5 Material remains elastic: 2%
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5 (b)
0.0
0 2 4 6
Volume fraction (%)
Fig. 9. Statistical distribution of eective plastic strain in
Voronoi polycrystal due to combined basal and prismatic slip
(scb 4:3 GPa and scp 7:5 GPa) at two compressive strains:
(a) 4% and (b) 6%. About 2% of the material remains elastic at
6% compressive strain, compared to about 24% when only basal
slip is activated, see Fig. 8(c). Note that prismatic slip is not
activated at 3% compressive strain.
signature of the eective plastic strain distribution
depends on the activated slip systems.
A statistical analysis of the data of Figs. 8 and 9
is summarized in Table 4. Three results may be
noted. First, although the mean and the standard
deviation both increase with e011 , the coecient of
variation decreases with it. Second, after prismatic
slip system is activated, the mean of the distribu-
tion associated with basal plus prismatic slip is
larger than that associated with basal slip only (as
110 = 0.04 1%, 15% and 24% larger than that assuming pure
basal slip at e011 0:04, 0.05 and 0.06, respectively.
This provides a quantitative assessment of the
relative importance of basal slip versus basal and
prismatic slip in contributing to microplasticity-
induced deformation.
Fig. 10(a)(d) shows the contour plots of the
eective plastic strain in the 100 crystals for the
applied compressive uniaxial strains of 0.025, 0.03,
110 = 0.06 0.04 and 0.06, respectively. Slip is allowed to occur
in both the basal and prismatic systems. The slip-
8 10
ped crystals are indicated in gray, with increasing
intensity corresponding to increasing magnitude of
the eective plastic strain. Note however that dif-
ferent intensity scales are used in Fig. 10(a)(d). It
can be observed that initially (at e011 0:025, the
strain corresponding to a state just beyond the
HEL) there exists a small fraction of isolated
slipped crystals. At larger e011 values, more crystals
have slipped and the eective plastic strains are
larger, but the microplasticity is not continuous.
Figs. 810 show that the plastic deformation of the
material is highly heterogeneous.
4. Conclusions
Micromechanical analysis is used to investigate
the possibility of microplasticity as a deformation
mechanism in polycrystalline ceramics subjected to

Table 4
The dependence of the mean, standard deviation and coecient of variation of the eective plastic strain for (a) scb 4:3 GPa (basal
slip only) and (b) scb 4:3 GPa, scp 7:5 GPa (basal and prismatic slip) in four compressed states: e011 0:03, 0.04, 0.05 and 0.06
e011 (a) Basal slip (b) Basal and prismatic slip
Mean Standard deviation Coecient of Mean Standard deviation Coecient of
variation variation
0.03 9.865e)4 1.274e)3 1.291 9.865e)4 1.274e)3 1.291
0.04 4.894e)3 4.401e)3 0.899 4.942e)3 4.353e)3 0.881
0.05 9.763e)3 7.771e)3 0.796 1.125e)2 6.192e)3 0.551
0.06 1.513e)2 1.100e)2 0.727 1.878e)2 7.169e)3 0.382
 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112 111

Fig. 10. Contour plots of the eective plastic strain eld in the Voronoi polycrystal for scb 4:3 GPa (CRSS for basal slip) and
scp 7:5 GPa (CRSS for prismatic slip) in four compressed states: (a) e011 0:025, (b) e011 0:03, (c) e011 0:04, and (d) e011 0:06. Note
that prismatic slip is not activated at e011 0:025, the strain corresponding to a state just beyond the HEL, or at e011 0:03.

high conning stresses. This involves modeling the
ceramic microstructure by a 2-D Voronoi poly-
crystal, and the use of generalized Eshelbys
method for generalized plane strain and the crystal
constitutive models for compression-dependent
non-linear elasticity and rate-independent plastic-
ity. Microplasticity is assumed to originate from
basal slip or combined basal and prismatic slip.
Numerical results for a 100-grain Voronoi
model of polycrystalline SiC show that: (1) a lim-
ited amount of microplasticity occurring hetero-
geneously can capture the essential characteristics
of the measured macroscopic response of the
material under plane shock wave compression
including the HEL and post-HEL behavior for
applied compressive uniaxial strains up to 6%,
which corresponds to a shock stress of about twice
the HEL, (2) the assumption of combined basal
and prismatic slip leads to a better t with the
experimental data than basal slip alone, (3)
the mean of the eective plastic strain at twice the
HEL and computed using the combined basal and
prismatic slip assumption can be 24% more intense
than that computed using the basal slip assump-
tion, (4) the longitudinal stress distribution is
essentially Gaussian whereas the eective plastic
strain distribution is dependent on the assumed
slip systems and is generally skewed, and (5) the
mean and standard deviation of the longitudinal
stress, the lateral stress and the eective plastic
strain all increase with the applied compression,
suggesting that the micromechanical states are
becoming increasingly heterogeneous with the in-
crease in the applied strain.
Acknowledgements
The research work reported in this paper is
supported by the Program of Mechanical Behavior
of Materials at the US Army Research Oce
(ARO) through the grant DAAD19-00-1-0161.
The assistance of Dr. David Stepp of ARO in
conducting this research work is appreciated.
112 D. Zhang et al. / Mechanics of Materials 37 (2005) 95112
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