Formation of persistent slip band‐structures during cyclic loading in finite‐strain crystal plasticity

Abstract

Cyclic loading of single-and polycrystals gives rise to complex structures and patterns on the material's microscale, which highly affect the macroscopic stress-strain response. The formation of microstructures in finite-strain crystal plasticity has been reasoned to stem from the non-quasiconvexity of the underlying energetic potentials. As a consequence of such a lack of convexity, the material reduces its energy by breaking up into fine-scale fluctuations of minimizing sequences, which correspond to the experimentally observed microstructures. Based on an incremental setting and relaxed potentials, we describe the formation and the time-continuous evolution of laminate structures during cyclic loading.