Solving Material Mechanics and Multiphysics Problems of Metals with Complex Microstructures using DAMASK – The Düsseldorf Advanced Material Simulation Kit

Predicting process–structure and structure–property relationships are the key tasks in materials science and engineering. Central to both research directions is the internal material structure. In the case of metallic materials used for structural applications, this internal structure, the microstructure, is the collective ensemble of all equilibrium and non‐equilibrium lattice imperfections. Continuum models to derive process–structure and structure–property relationships are based on two ingredients: 1) quantitative state variables that capture the essential features of the material’s microstructural state and 2) kinetic equations for the state that describe the evolution of these parameters under load. Successful models, i.e. models that are of practical use, depend on state variables and corresponding evolution laws that are sufficiently representative for the microstructure and which are able to describe the phenomena of interest. The development of software tools capable to integrate these different aspects to get a holistic view of process–structure–property relationships requires joint efforts from specialist in different disciplines and a long‐term perspective. The Düsseldorf Advanced Materials Simulation Kit (DAMASK) is such a tool. In this overview article published on the occasion of AEM’s 20th anniversary, some representative application examples which demonstrate how DAMASK can be used to study metallic microstructures at different length scales are presented.