Coupling crystal plasticity and cellular automaton models to study meta-dynamic recrystallization during hot rolling at high strain rates

Predicting microstructure and (micro-)texture evolution during thermo-mechanical processing requires the combined simulation of plastic deformation and recrystallization. Here, a simulation approach based on the coupling of a full-field dislocation density based crystal plasticity model and a cellular automaton model is presented. A regridding/remeshing procedure is used to transfer data between the deformed mesh of the large-strain crystal plasticity model and the regular grid of the cellular automaton. Moreover, a physics based nucleation criterion has been developed based on dislocation density difference and changes in orientation due to deformation. The developed framework is used to study meta-dynamic recrystallization during double-hit compression tests and multi-stand rolling in high-resolution representative volume elements. These simulations reveal a good agreement with experimental results in terms of texture evolution, mechanical behaviour and growth kinetics, while enabling insights regarding the effect of nucleation on kinetics and crystallographic texture evolution.