Grain boundary sliding revisited: Developments in sliding over four decades

It is now recognized that grain boundary sliding (GBS) is often an important mode of deformation in polycrystalline materials. This paper reviews the developments in GBS over the last four decades including the procedures available for estimating the strain contributed by sliding to the total strain, ξ, and the division into Rachinger GBS in conventional creep and Lifshitz GBS in diffusion creep. It is shown that Rachinger GBS occurs under two distinct conditions in conventional creep depending upon whether the grain size, d, is larger or smaller than the equilibrium subgrain size, λ. A unified model is presented leading to separate rate equations for Rachinger GBS in power-law creep and superplasticity. It is demonstrated that these two equations are in excellent agreement with experimental observations. There are additional recent predictions, not fully resolved at the present time, concerning the role of GBS in nanostructured materials.     

The Measurement of Compressive Creep Deformation and Damage Mechanisms in a Single-Phase Alumina Part I Grain boundary sliding

Grain boundary sliding (GBS) has been hypothesized to act as the primary driving force for the nucleation and growth of grain boundary cavities in ceramics undergoing creep. In addition, GBS is often a major mode of deformation during high-temperature creep. This paper demonstrates the importance of GBS with mode II GBS measurements performed using a stereoimaging technique on a single-phase alumina tested under constant compressive stresses of 70 and 140 MPa at 1600 °C. Measurements were taken at constant time intervals during creep. The results support previous observations that GBS is stochastic and history independent. GBS displacements at given time intervals are shown to fit a Wiebull distribution. During steady-state creep, GBS displacements increased linearly with time at a constant sliding rate of 6.0 × 10–5 m s–1 at 70 MPa and 1.3 × 10–4 m s–1 at 140 MPa. Also, an average of 67% of the grain boundaries exhibited measurable sliding throughout the creep life of the 140 MPa test. Results of the GBS measurements are used to modify an existing creep model describing stochastic GBS. In part II of this paper [1], the GBS measurements reported are related to the associated creep cavitation measured in specimens tested under identical conditions.     

Application of electron beam lithography to study microcreep deformation and grain boundary sliding

Electron beam lithography has been employed to study microcreep deformation and grain boundary sliding in pure copper. Fine electron-sensitive microgrids of an alloy of palladium and gold were developed on the surface of rectangular specimens. Interrupted creep tests were carried out at 723 K at two stress levels in an argon atmosphere. Creep strain and grain boundary sliding were determined by forming Moire fringes in a scanning electron microscope as well as from the displacement of the grid lines. Local distribution of creep strain inside the grains was found to be non-uniform. Grain boundary sliding exhibited a wavy behaviour.     

Grain Boundary Sliding in Fatigue of Pure Aluminum

The distributions of plastic strain near grain boundaries induced by fatigue loading were investigatedby the fiducial grid method in pure aluminum specimens, and the resulted grain boundary sliding(GBS) was systematically analysed. The results show that the strain field near a grain boundary isnonuniform. GBS is restricted by the junction of grain boundaries and causes discontinuities of bothdisplacement and strain. A peak value of shear strain was created in short-range area across the grainboundary. GBS plays an important role in cyclic softening and secondary hardening. The control fac-tor of GBS is the relative orientation between two grains and the macro orientation of the grainboundary rather than the ∑ value of the boundary.     

Creep behavior and life assessment of anisotropic bicrystals with a void and without void in different kinds of grain boundaries

Based on crystallographic theory, a creep constitutive relationship and a life predictive model have been presented. The crystallographic creep constitutive relationship has been implemented as a user subroutine ’CRPLAW' to MACR. Bicrystal models containing a void in the grain boundary and bicrystal model without void have been studied by the finite element method. Different loading direction has been studied in order to show the influence of relative direction of loading to grain boundary on the creep behavior of the bicrystals. The numerical results of bicrystal models show that there are a high stress gradient and stress concentration near the void and grain boundary. The existing of the void has strong influence on creep durability life of the crystal. The stress distribution and creep strain characterization are dependent on the crystallographic orientations of the two crystals and the grain boundary direction as well as the existing of the void and loading directions. It is shown that the bicrystal model of the loading direction perpendicular to the grain boundary has the highest creep strain and creep damage, while that model of the of the loading direction parallel to the grain boundary has the minimum. This above conclusion is also same to the growth of void.     

Creep in polycrystalline aluminium

Abstract

The present paper reports a study of creep in large grained polycrystalline aluminium. Two techniques were employed to understand this process in more detail. The first was stereoimaging to measure the local strain in the specimen. This measurement was made by photographing the specimen at various times during the creep test, which was carried out in a scanning electron microscope, and using these images to calculate the strain. The second technique was analysis of electron backscattering diffraction patterns, as generated in a scanning electron microscope. This technique allowed examination of changes in crystallography that accompanied the creep process. The results of the experiments showed that strain built up in different grains at different rates. There was never a discontinuity in strain across the grain boundary, and strain relaxation was observed in different grains at different times during the test. Recrystallisation was also observed to occur. In some cases, an existing grain migrated into another grain, presumably through strain induced grain boundary migration. In other cases, there appeared to be nucleation of a new grain with a different orientation.     

The Measurement of Compressive Creep Deformation and Damage Mechanisms in a Single-Phase Alumina Part II Correlation of creep cavitation and grain boundary sliding

It has been theorized that stochastic grain boundary sliding (GBS) is the primary driving force for the nucleation, growth, and coalescence of cavities located on the grain boundaries of polycrystalline ceramics undergoing creep. This paper reports on the results of co-ordinated measurements of both GBS and creep cavitation during the creep of a single-phase alumina. Constant compressive stress creep experiments were performed at a temperature of 1600 °C, and stress levels of 70, 100, and 140 MPa. Small angle neutron scattering measurements (SANS) show that cavities nucleate continuously due to creep at all three stress levels, and that since negligible cavity growth was measured, creep cavitation appears to be ruled by a nucleation rather than a growth process. Also, at a constant creep temperature, the number and volume of cavities measured was observed to decrease with a decrease in the applied stress. GBS displacements reported in Part 1 of this paper [1] are related to the number of cavities nucleated per unit volume and shown to relate directly, thereby providing experimental evidence that GBS may act as the driving force for creep cavitation.     

Grain-boundary sliding measurements in Al2O3 by machine vision photogrammetry

The nucleation, growth and coalescence of grain-boundary cavities is the primary damage mechanism observed during creep of structural ceramics. Furthermore, grain-boundary sliding (GBS) has been identified as the driving force process. Although the creep characteristics of structural ceramics have been extensively studied, very little is known about the details of GBS during creep and how GBS relates to cavitation kinetics. This paper presents the results of a study using a machine vision system to measure Mode II GBS displacements in a Lucalox Al₂O₃. Specifically, sliding displacements as large as 0.4 m were measured. The measured displacements indicate that some grain boundaries experienced shear strains and strain rates of 4200% and 2.3×10^–2 s^–1, respectively. The techniques utilized for these measurements are described in detail, and data gathered during a 2 1/2 h compressive creep test under a stress of 138 MPa at 1600 °C are presented and discussed.     

The effect of the diffusion creep behavior on the TSV-Cu protrusion morphology during annealing

As through-silicon vias (TSVs) are key structural elements of 3D integration and packaging, creep deformation, which causes TSV-Cu protrusion, is critical for TSV reliability. Here, the effect of the diffusion creep behavior on the TSV-Cu protrusion morphology is analyzed using experiment and simulation. The protrusion morphology of TSV-Cu after annealing treatment is examined using a white light interferometer. The diffusion creep mechanism of TSV-Cu is determined by observation of the TSV-Cu microstructure using a scanning electron microscopy and a focused ion beams. The TSV-Cu grain size is measured using an electron backscatter diffraction system. The diffusion creep rate model of TSV-Cu is deduced based on the energy balance theory and is introduced into the finite element model to clarify the influence of diffusion creep on TSV-Cu protrusion. It is determined that the diffusion creep of TSV-Cu is mainly caused by grain boundary diffusion and grain boundary sliding. The diffusion creep strain rate is positively correlated with the ambient temperature and the external load but negatively correlated with the grain size. The amount of TSV-Cu protrusion increases with decreasing grain size. The simulation results show that the “donut”-shaped protrusion morphology is more likely to occur in TSV-Cu with smaller grain sizes near the sidewall region of the via.     

Grain Boundary Sliding at Serrated Grain Boundaries

A constitutive model is developed for grain boundary sliding (GBS) at serrated grain boundaries. Based on a previously developed GBS model, using the dynamics of grain boundary dislocation pile-up, the present model takes the average of the sliding rate over the characteristic dimensions of grain boundary serrations. Thus, a geometric factor is introduced to account for the effects of serration wave length and amplitude on the GBS rate, as compared to the GBS rate at planar boundaries. By considering the role of grain boundary shear stress in stress balancing, the proposed model removes the singularity at planar boundaries which exists in the diffusion-controlled GBS model at serrated grain boundaries. The modified model describes very well the transient creep of complex Ni-base superalloys with and without grain boundary serrations and should be suitable for other engineering alloys (with the exception of columnar grained and single crystal alloys).     

The effect of solutes on grain boundary mobility during recrystallization and grain growth in some single-phase aluminium alloys

The effect of solutes (Si, Mn, Mg) in quantities typical of commercial aluminium alloys, on grain boundary mobility in aluminium, has been investigated with in situ annealing and electron backscattered diffraction in the SEM, and grain growth experiments. The in situ experiments provided information on the migration of the high mobility tilt boundaries of misorientations close to 40°〈1 1 1〉. Grain growth experiments were used to investigate boundary migration in alloys of high solute content (1-5wt%Mg), and a comparison between the in situ and bulk experiments is made. The relationship between boundary velocity and driving pressure was found to be linear in all cases, and the activation energies for boundary migration were higher than those controlled by lattice diffusion of the solutes at higher solute concentrations.     

Uniaxial creep behavior of nanostructured, solution and dispersion hardened V-1.4Y-7W-9Mo-0.7TiC with different grain sizes

Nanostructured vanadium (V) alloys are expected to exhibit high performance under neutron irradiation environments. However, their ultra-fine or refined grains cause significant decrease in flow stress at high temperatures due to grain boundary sliding (GBS), which is the major concern for their high-temperature structural applications such as future fusion reactors. The contribution of GBS to plastic deformation is known to depend strongly on grain size (GS) and may give more significant influence on long-time creep test results than on short-time tensile test results. In order to improve the creep resistance through elucidation of the effect of GS on the uniaxial creep behavior of nanostructured V alloys, a solution and dispersion hardened V alloy, V-1.4Y-7W-9Mo-0.7TiC (in wt%), with GSs from 0.58 to 2.16 μm was developed by mechanical alloying and HIP processes, followed by annealing at 1473-1773 K, and creep tested at 1073 K and 250 MPa in vacuum. It is shown that the creep resistance of V-1.4Y-7W-9Mo-0.7TiC increases monotonically with GS: The creep life for the alloy with 2.16 μm in GS is as long as 114 h, which is longer by factors of 2-30 than those for the other finer grained alloys and by two orders than that for coarse-grained V-4Cr-4Ti (Nifs heat2, GS: 17.8 μm) that is a primary candidate material for fusion reactor structural applications. The minimum (steady state) creep rate decreases with increasing GS as ?_s ∝ (1/?)³, where ?_s is the steady state creep rate and ? is the grain diameter. The observed superior creep resistance of V-1.4Y-7W-9Mo-0.7TiC is discussed in terms of GS effects on dislocation glide/climb, GBS, and strain hardening capability enhanced by solution and dispersion hardening.     

Effect of dynamic recrystallization on the importance of grain-boundary sliding during creep

During creep of polycrystalline materials at elevated temperatures, a certain amount of the strain is accommodated by grain-boundary sliding (GBS). The relative importance of GBS depends on the stress and grain size and sometimes temperature. During high-strain deformation, dynamic recrystallization often occurs with the resultant grain size only related to the stress. In this situation the importance of GBS is then dependent only upon stress and sometimes temperature. In dynamically recrystallized Magnox Al80 deformed atT>0.8T _m, 16 to 23% of the imposed strain is accommodated by GBS. A comparison has been made between the experimental results and some theoretical models for the importance of GBS during creep, modified to take account of recrystallization. The best fit to the data is obtained with the modified form of Langdons model. Deformation mechanism maps constructed with this model suggest that dynamic recrystallization can cause a switch of mechanism from dislocation creep to dominant GBS at intermediate temperature (T<673 K) and low stress. Deformation mechanism maps have also been constructed for calcite based on the data of Schmidet al. These suggest that GBS is an important mechanism in calcite deformed under geological conditions.     

A comparison of the microstructure and creep behavior of cold rolled HAYNES 230 alloy™ and HAYNES 282 alloy™

HAYNES 282 and HAYNES 230 nickel-based superalloys were subjected to cold rolling deformation and heat treatments in order to investigate processing-microstructure-property relationships to understand the effects of thermomechanical processing on their microstructure and tensile-creep behavior. The sheet materials underwent four cycles of 20% reduction in thickness followed by a solution treatment. The resultant microstructures were characterized using electron backscattered diffraction and electron microscopy, and the high-temperature (973-1088 K (700-815 °C)) creep and fatigue behavior was evaluated and compared to the commercially available sheet alloys. The thermomechanical processing treatments did not significantly affect the grain boundary character distribution and almost half of all the boundaries in the microstructures were twin boundaries. The creep resistance was shown to degrade with the additional thermomechanical treatments, which resulted in finer equiaxed grain sizes. The HAYNES 282 alloy was shown to be significantly more creep resistant than the HAYNES 230 alloy. The fatigue behavior indicated that creep ratcheting occurred more prominently in the HAYNES 230 alloy than in the HAYNES 282 alloy and this was explained to be a result of the superior creep resistance exhibited by the HAYNES 282 alloy. Overall, this study suggests that additional energy-intensive processing treatments, beyond those involved in the commercially available sheet products, may not be beneficial for additional creep resistance.     

Microscale characterization of granular deformation near a crack tip

This paper presents a study of microscale plastic deformation at the crack tip and the effect of microstructure feature on the local deformation of aluminum specimen during fracture test. Three-point bending test of aluminum specimen was conducted inside a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging system. The crack tip deformation was measured in situ utilizing SEM imaging capabilities and the digital image correlation (DIC) full-field deformation measurement technique. The microstructure feature at the crack tip was examined to understand its effect on the local deformation fields. Microscale pattern that was suitable for the DIC technique was generated on the specimen surface using sputter coating through a copper mesh before the fracture test. A series of SEM images of the specimen surface were acquired using in situ backscattered electronic imaging (BEI) mode during the test. The DIC technique was then applied to these SEM images to calculate the full-field deformation around the crack tip. The grain orientation map at the same location was obtained from electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), which was superimposed on a DIC strain map to study the relationship between the microstructure feature and the evolution of plastic deformation at the crack tip. This approach enables to track the initiation and evolution of plastic deformation in grains adjacent to the crack tip. Furthermore, bifurcation of the crack due to intragranular and intergranular crack growth was observed. There was also localization of strain along a grain boundary ahead of and parallel to the crack after the maximum load was reached, which was a characteristic of Dugdale–Barenblatt strip-yield zone. Thus, it appears that there is a mixture of effects in the fracture process zone at the crack tip where the weaker aspects of the grain boundary controls the growth of the crack and the more ductile aspects of the grains themselves dissipate the energy and the corresponding strain level available for these processes through plastic work.     

Superplastic power-law creep of Sn–40%Pb–2.5%Sb peritectic alloy

The power law-creep behavior of superplastic Sn–40Pb–2.5Sb alloys with different grain sizes has been investigated at room temperature. Stress exponent values for these alloys have been determined by indentation creep, conventional creep and uniaxial tension tests in order to evaluate the correspondence of indentation creep results with conventional tests. In all cases, the indentation results were in good agreement with each other and with those of the tensile and conventional creep tests. The average stress exponent values of about 2.6 and 3.0 corresponding to the strain rate sensitivity (SRS) indices of 0.33–0.39, depending on the grain size of the materials, indicate that the grain boundary sliding is the possible mechanism during creep deformation of Sn–Pb–Sb alloys. Within limits, the indentation tests are thus considered useful to acquire information on the creep behavior of small specimens of these soft tin–lead–antimony alloys at room temperature. It is also demonstrated that the indentation creep test provides a convenient method to measure SRS and thereby to assess the ability of a material to undergo superplastic deformation.     

Combined effects of thin-section size, grain size and cavities on the high temperature creep fracture properties of a nickel-base superalloy

The creep fracture characteristics of a conventionally cast (CC) MAR-M 002 superalloy, controlled by the grain-boundary diffusion mechanism, have been investigated at various specimen section-sizes D, and grain sizes, d. It is observed that the creep rupture strain (or ductility, R, is controlled by the D2/(nGl) ratio, where nG is the number of grains per cross-section of specimen and l is the half-cavity spacing, at the creep conditions (900° C/ 300MPa). A rapid improvement in creep rupture life can be made by reducing the (dC/d)/D ratio [ or, equivalently, the (dCnG)/D2 ratio] below a critical value ( 100×10-8 10m-1), where dC is the cavity size. The thin-section size dependent creep rupture life, tR/D, and creep rupture strain, R/D, are explained on the basis of grain boundary sliding (GBS) and creep crack growth (CCG) behaviour of the alloy. R/D and tR/D can be improved by reducing the GBS rate. A large improvement in tR/D can be achieved by reducing the GBS and CCG rates below the critical values of these rates by reducing the crack size through increasing the grain size above a critical value. (Above a critical grain size value the crack size becomes so small that, as a result, a large increment of tR is achieved.)     

Effects of phosphorus on creep behaviour of nickel and Ni–20Cr and on creep and strength of Nimonic 80A

Abstract

The influence of P on the creep behaviour of Ni, Ni–20Cr (wt-%), and Nimonic 80A was investigated by carrying out creep tests under various loads and at different temperatures. After creep fracture the samples were investigated using optical, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopy. The grain boundary segregation was examined using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). It was found that P segregates to the grain boundaries in all the materials investigated. The creep rate of Ni–20Cr and Nimonic 80A is decreased by the addition of P. Grain boundary segregation of P and its influence on strength was also investigated using AES for specimens aged between 600 and 700°C after fracture by a tensile test inside an ultrahigh vacuum chamber. Maxima of tensile strength are observed to be time dependent as a result of carbide precipitation, which is affected by the P segregation.

MST/1679     

AZ61镁合金薄板超塑性变形特征的SEM研究

利用扫描电镜(SEM)和超塑性拉伸实验对一次热挤压加工成型的AZ61镁合金薄板(晶粒尺寸～12μm)超塑性变形特征进行了研究.结果显示,在最佳的变形温度(623K)和应变速率(1×10-4s-1)条件下,可获得的最大的超塑性形变量为920%.在523～673 K实验温度和1×10-2～1×10-5s-1应变速率范围内,材料的应变速率敏感指数(m值)随实验温度升高和应变速率的降低而增加.较高的m值(0.42～0.46)对应于晶界滑动机制(GBS),而较低的m值(0.22～0.25)则对应于位错滑移机制.变形温度和应变速率是影响超塑性变形量和变量机制的主要因素.     

基于EBSD技术的P91钢蠕变过程中小角度晶界演化行为表征

在620℃、145 MPa条件下对给定的P91钢进行高温蠕变持久与间断试验,采用电子背散射衍射(EBSD)技术研究其在蠕变过程中小角度晶界的演化行为。通过引入EBSD图像中的取向差分布来表征小角度晶界处(0.5~5°)的边界位错密度,分析了边界位错密度在蠕变过程中与小角度边界的数量、塑性应变以及内部微观组织演化之间的关系。此外,通过改变EBSD像素点与像素点之间的计算步长,探讨了步长选择对边界位错密度计算结果的影响。结果表明,小角度晶界处的位错密度在蠕变过程中先迅速上升,在最小蠕变率处达到极值后缓慢下降,直到最后基本保持不变;同时,EBSD的计算步长越小,得到的位错密度值越准确。