Mechanical behavior of polycrystals: Coupled in situ DIC-EBSD analysis of pure copper under tensile test

Understanding the mechanisms at the microstructure scale is of great importance for modeling the behavior of materials at different scales. To this end, digital image correlation (DIC) is an effective measurement method for evaluating the strains generated by various loading conditions. The objective of this paper is to describe the experimental setup and the use of high resolution digital image correlation (HRDIC) during in situ Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) tests in order to provide a coupling between polycrystalline modeling and experiment in the near future. The HRDIC technique is used to evaluate the tensile behavior of a pure copper polycrystal at room temperature. Several magnitudes are investigated in order to discuss the representativeness of the results with respect to the macroscopic scale. The selected image correlation parameters are discussed regarding the ability of the technique to define inter- and intra- granular strain heterogeneities. Finally, based on EBSD analyzes, the impact of grain orientation on the mechanical behavior is discussed. The Schmid factor, calculated from a macroscopic stress, appears to be the determining factor concerning the orientation of the location bands. On the other hand, it is not sufficient to define the mean strains in the grains.