Numerical and experimental investigation of the dynamic mechanical behavior of precipitation-strengthed NiCoCrSi0.3C0.048 medium-entropy alloy

An extended crystal plasticity model and an optimized neural network are established to investigate the mechanical behavior of CoCrNiSi0.3C0.048 Medium entropy alloy (MEA) with a three-level hierarchical precipitation structure under dynamic compressive deformation at a variety of ranges of strain rates. The interaction between the matrix and first-level precipitates is described by a presented hybrid representative volume element RVE model, involving the effects of volume fraction (Vf), radius and geometric distribution on heterogeneous deformation. Effects of second- and third-level precipitates are realized through the extended crystal plasticity constitutive model, reflecting the motion mechanism of dislocations near the precipitates in the form of initial slip resistance. Meanwhile, this study investigates the influence of the presence of primary precipitates on the initiation of slip systems within special grains with Goss or S orientations in the matrix. Additionally, it provides a more in-depth explanation of the underlying principles behind the suppression of Goss texture formation by the precipitates from the perspective of slip systems analysis. The changing of volume fractions affects flow stress evolution. Avoiding suffering from expensive computational consumption by the crystal plasticity finite element method, an artificial neural network model optimized through a genetic algorithm, is presented to predict stress-strain responses and texture evolution results under varying compression strain rates. A reliable dataset derived from crystal plasticity finite element models and experimental results is utilized to train, test, and validate the genetic algorithm-based artificial neural network model. This model demonstrates good prediction capability in dynamic mechanical behavior and texture evolution, showcasing the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed neural network model. Compared to the CPFEM method, neural network models can greatly improve computational efficiency.