Qualitative Investigation of Damage Initiation at Meso-Scale in Spheroidized C45EC Steels by Using Crystal Plasticity-Based Numerical Simulations

This research uses EBSD data of two thermo-mechanically processed medium carbon (C45EC) steel samples to simulate micromechanical deformation and damage behavior. Two with 83% 97% spheroidization degrees are subjected virtual monotonic quasi-static tensile loading. The ferrite phase is assigned already reported elastic plastic parameters, while the cementite particles properties. A phenomenological constitutive material model critical strain-based ductile criterion implemented in DAMASK framework for matrix. At global level, calibrated response matches well experimental results, up ~97% accuracy. simulation results provide essential insight into initiation propagation based on stress strain localization due particle size, distribution, grain orientations. In general, it observed that ferrite–cementite interface prone at earlier stages triggered by clustering. Furthermore, crystallographic orientation strongly affects consequently nucleating initial damage.