This paper investigates the relevance of the representation of polycrystalline aggregates using Radical Voronoï (RV) tessellation, computed from Random Close Packs (RCP) of spheres with radius distribution following a lognormal distribution. A continuous relationship between the distribution of sphere radii with that of RV cell volumes is proposed. The stereology problem (deriving the 3D grain size distributions from 2D sections) is also investigated: two statistical methods are proposed, giving analytical continuous relationships between the apparent grain size distribution and the sphere radius distribution. In order to assess the proposed methods, a 3D aggregate has been generated based on a EBSD map of a real polycrystalline microstructure.

International audienceShape Memory Alloys (SMAs) undergo an austenite-martensite solid-solid phase transformation which confers its pseudo-elastic and shape memory behaviours. Phase transformation can be induced either by stress or temperature changes. That indicates a strong thermo-mechanical coupling. Tensile test is one of the most popular mechanical test, allowing an easy observation of this coupling: transformation bands appear and enlarge giving rise to a large amount of heat and strain localisation. We demonstrate that the number of transformation bands is strongly associated with the strain rate. Recent progress in full field measurement techniques have provided accurate observations and consequently a better understanding of strain and heat generation and diffusion in SMAs. These experiments bring us to suggest the creation of a new one-dimensional thermomechanical modelling of the pseudo-elastic behaviour. It is used to simulate the heat rise, strain localisation and thermal evolution of the NiTi SMA sample submitted to tensile loading