Interaction of phase‐transformations and plasticity – a multi‐phase micro‐sphere approach

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>We present an efficient model for the simulation of solid to solid phase‐transformations in polycrystalline materials. As a basis, we implement a scalar‐valued Gibbs‐energy‐barrier‐based phase‐transformation model making use of statistical physics. In this work, we particularly adopt the model for the simulation of phase‐transformations between an austenitic parent phase and a martensitic tension and compression phase. The incorporation of plasticity phenomena is established by enhancing the Helmholtz free energy functions of the material phases considered, where the plastic driving forces acting in each phase are derived from the overall free energy potential. The coupled model is embedded into a micro‐sphere formulation in order to simulate three‐dimensional boundary value problems—a technique well‐established in the context of computational inelasticity at small strains. It is shown that the model is capable of reflecting experimentally observed behaviour. (© 2011 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA, Weinheim)</jats:p>