Elastoplastic phase field model for microstructure evolution

Success has been obtained in predicting the dynamic evolution of microstructures during phase transformation or cracking propagation by using the time-dependent phase field methodology (PFM). However, most efforts of PFM were made in the elastic regime. In this letter, stress distributions around defects such as a hole and a crack in an externally loaded two-dimensional representative volume element were investigated by a proposed phase field model that took both the elastic and plastic deformations into consideration. Good agreement was found for static cases compared to the use of finite element analysis. Therefore, the proposed phase field model provides an opportunity to study the dynamic evolution of microstructures under plastic deformation.