Thickness of grain-boundary liquid phase and its effect on the mechanism of superplastic deformation

For a series of matrix aluminum alloys, an estimation of the thickness of the grain-boundary liquid phase under the optimum conditions of the manifestation of high-temperature superplasticity has been performed. It has been established that the contribution of grain-boundary sliding to the total deformation under these conditions is determining. It has been shown that the greater values of the thickness of the grain-boundary liquid phase correspond to greater values of the parameter m of the strain-rate sensitivity of the flow stress. The obtained dependences of the thickness of the grain-boundary liquid phase on m indicate that with increasing amount of the liquid phase the grain-boundary sliding progressively acquires features of viscous flow.