Role of strain-rate sensitivity in the crystal plasticity of hexagonal structures

In the first part of this paper the stress and strain-rate response of hexagonal crystal structures are examined when slip is viscoplastic according to a power law. The stress and strain-rate equi-potential surfaces are constructed and discussed as a function of the strain-rate sensitivity index m. The second part of this paper deals with the case of linear viscous slip; i.e., for the case when m is equal to one. A simple analytic solution is presented to obtain the deviatoric stress state for a given strain-rate. It is shown that the plastic spin is not zero for m=1 in hexagonal crystal structures, contrary to the cubic case where the plastic spin vanishes. In addition, the rate of texture evolution in simple shear of a magnesium polycrystal is examined as a function of m. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.