This article reviews continuum-based variational formulations for describing the elastic–plastic deformation of anisotropic heterogeneous crystalline matter. These approaches, commonly referred to as crystal plasticity finite element models, are important both for basic microstructure-based mechanical predictions as well as for engineering design and performance simulations involving anisotropic media. Besides the discussion of the constitutive laws, kinematics, homogenization schemes, and multiscale approaches behind these methods we also present some examples including in particular comparisons of the predictions with experiments.
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