Cosserat continuum modelling of grain size effects in metal polycrystals

Abstract The global response of polycrystalline aggregates is investigated, in order to simulate grain size effects in IF ferritic steels. The mechanics of generalized continua is used to describe the studied phenomena. The polycrystal is regarded as a heterogeneous Cosserat medium, and the overall properties are estimated using a specific homogenization technique. To illustrate the capabilities of the model, some simple bidimensionnal …