Calculation of effective Young’s modulus distribution from electron backscatter diffraction results for stochastic analyses in aerospace applications

Abstract

In reliability analyses of safety-relevant components it is necessary to consider the variations in load, geometry and material properties. The scatter in load, geometry and global material properties is nowadays addressed in some stochastic analyses [1, 2], whereas the scatter in local material properties is not adequately regarded due to difficulties in determining meaningful and stochastically relevant local material properties. In this paper a method for estimating the local distribution of the effective elastic behavior, belonging to a defined component direction, is presented. First, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analyses of relevant cross sections were performed. Second, the effective elastic behavior perpendicular to the cross section was calculated for each scan point from the determined Euler angles. By using direct tensor rotation and generalized Hooke’s law, the method can be applied to all kind of crystal structures if the elastic constants of the single crystal material are known. The experimental procedure, the mathematical background und the numerical realization are described in detail. Two examples of applying the procedure to materials for aerospace components as well as a stochastic finite element simulation considering the determined scatter of the elastic properties are shown.