A multiscale constitutive model of magnesium-shape memory alloy composite

In this work, a multiscale constitutive model is established to describe the deformation behaviors of magnesium-shape memory alloy (Mg-SMA) composite in a wide temperature range and reveal the strengthening mechanism of SMA reinforcement on Mg. The model is established at the grain scale firstly and gradually transited to the macroscopic scale by employing a newly developed three-level scale transition rule. At the grain scale, the thermodynamic-consistent constitutive models of Mg and SMA are, respectively, constructed by addressing different inelastic deformation mechanisms. The basal, prismatic, pyramidal, slip systems and extension twinning system are considered for the Mg phase, and the martensite transformation (MT) and austenitic plasticity are addressed for SMA reinforcement. Thermodynamic driving forces of each inelastic deformation mechanism are derived from the dissipative inequality and the constructed Gibbs free energies. At the polycrystalline scale, to evaluate the interactions among the grains and pores, and obtain the whole responses of the polycrystalline Mg and SMA, a thermo-mechanically coupled selfconsistent homogenization scheme is employed. At the mesoscopic scale, a modified thermomechanically coupled Mori-Tanaka's homogenization scheme is adopted to evaluate the interaction between the Mg phase and SMA phase, and predict the whole responses for the representative volume element (RVE) of the composite. According to the geometrical features and mechanical loadings applied on the specimen, a hypothesis of homogeneous stress and strain fields at the macroscopic scale is adopted to achieve the scale transition from the RVE of the composite to the whole specimen. The capacity of the multiscale model is verified by comparing the predictions with the existing experimental data (Aydogmus, 2015). Moreover, the influences of characteristic information for the microstructures at different spatial scales on the deformation behaviors of the composite are predicted and discussed.