Advances in the theory of plasticity of metallic materials have been driven by the demand to improve performance and safety of structures and machine parts.
The central goal of this series of lectures is to provide an overview of the current knowledge and recent developments in the field with applications spanning multiple length scales and strain-rate regimes. Emphasis is placed on providing a rigorous framework for description of dissipative phenomena, a clear understanding of the hypotheses and simplifying assumptions for each of the constitutive models and computational methods presented. Specifically, for each model, the range of applicability, and limitations are provided along with examples of their predictive capabilities through applications from various engineering fields. Furthermore, open questions related to modeling of plastic deformation mechanisms at the single crystal scale, role of the material’s symmetries, how plastic anisotropy affects damage are pointed out and possible future directions of research and applications are provided. Attention is also paid to the interplay between plasticity and the evolution of ductile damage, which triggers the formation instabilities that eventually lead to material fracture. Finally, the importance of material microstructure at various length scales is discussed along with the impact of microstructure and its evolution on overall material behavior.
Following this course, the attendees will have (1) the basic concepts necessary to design experiments that would reveal key features of the mechanical response of a material under given loading conditions, (2) understanding of the deformation mechanisms at lower length scales that induce the observed macroscopic response, (3) the ability to determine the most appropriate model to be used along with an appropriate parametrization, (4) concepts necessary to formulate constitutive models for fully-dense and porous metals which display anisotropy and tension-compression asymmetry, (5) the basics necessary for implementation of the models into FE codes, (6) analytical modeling of instabilities, (7) basic understanding of the differences between mean-field and full-field polycrystal formulations, enabling the selection of the appropriate model for prediction of the mechanical behavior and microstructure evolution of a polycrystal; (8) basics of the mechanics of interfaces, with focus on microstructure evolution, phase transformations, and the respective computational approaches.

The course will combine theoretical classes with hands on lectures in which the attendees will run codes and perform simulations putting into practice the concepts introduced, developing critical understanding of the mechanisms which control plastic deformation at different scales. In addition, slots for the participants to present their research will be allocated.