Adiabatic shear band (ASB) formation in textured HCP polycrystals has been investigated
under regimes of high rate compression and shear loading using dynamic thermomechanically
coupled, dislocation-based crystal plasticity modelling. The balance between
rate of plastic dissipation leading to internal heat generation versus rate of thermal diffusion
at a crystallographic length scale has been shown to be pivotal for the formation or otherwise
of ASBs. Micro-texture has been found to have a key role in both advancing and inhibiting
shear band growth, and its control offers the possibility of new alloys with higher impact
strength over strain rate range 2 1 10  to 5 110 s
-1. Texture has been found to lead to wide
variations in applied macroscopic strain at which ASB formation occurs, such that strain level
in isolation is inappropriate as a universal indicator of ASB onset.
High-rate shear loading is found to lead to lower onset strains for ASBs compared to high
rate compression, but the dependence of both on texture leads to considerable variation in
strain level for ASB formation. A preliminary map demarcating ASB onset has been
established over regimes of applied strain and texture for dynamic shear and compression.