Abstract
Results of research on application of modern numerical methods for analysis of influence of microstructure heterogeneities on material processing are presented in this work. Various approaches that represent state of the art in this area are discussed. The main focus, however, is put on the micro-scale behavior, where advantages of digital material representation can be taken into account. Digital representation allows to model microstructure with its features like crystallographic orientation, grain boundaries or phase boundaries taken in an explicit manner. Two fast and computationally efficient methods for creation of statistically representative microstructures are presented in the paper: the cellular automata technique and Voronoi tessellation. Examples of capabilities of these two methods are presented and discussed. This section is supported by selected examples of numerical simulations of channel die compression test based on the digital microstructures.