A crystal plasticity finite element framework for multiscale structure-property-performance analysis in functionally graded porous 316L stainless steel

This study develops a multiscale modeling framework based on the crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) method to analyze structure–property-performance relationships of functionally graded porous (FGP) 316L stainless steel fabricated via laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M). A novel method using random cropping of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) scans is proposed to determine the minimum size of representative volume elements (RVEs) required for microscale simulations of additively manufactured samples. These RVEs were integrated with the CPFE model in ABAQUS using a custom UMAT subroutine, ensuring accurate simulation of the material’s behavior under tensile and compressive loading. The CPFE model was calibrated to achieve less than 1 % deviation between experimental and predicted stress–strain results. The simulation outputs were then used as material properties for finite element simulations of FGP structures, accurately predicting their deformation behavior at the macroscale. The optimized RVE size was determined as 100 × 100 × 100 μm3, and the model captured the deformation of FGP structures at various displacement stages. Under compression, simulation results showed only 1.5 % deviation from tensile predictions, confirming the model’s robustness. This multiscale framework serves as an integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) tool, supporting the design of new materials with tailored properties when experiments are costly and time-consuming.