Grain Boundaries and Crystalline Plasticity

The main purpose of this book is to put forward the fundamental role of grain boundaries in the plasticity of crystalline materials.

To understand this role requires a multi-scale approach to plasticity: starting from the atomic description of a grain boundary and its defects, moving on to the elemental interaction processes between dislocations and grain boundaries, and finally showing how the microscopic phenomena influence the macroscopic behaviors and constitutive laws.

It involves bringing together physical, chemical and mechanical studies. The investigated properties are: deformation at low and high temperature, creep, fatigue and rupture.

Preface xi

Chapter 1. Grain Boundary Structures and Defects 1
Jany THIBAULT-PENISSON and Louisette PRIESTER

1.1. Equilibrium structure of grain boundaries 1

1.2. Crystalline defects of grain boundaries 18

1.3. Conclusion 41

1.4. Bibliography 42

Chapter 2. Elementary Grain Boundary Deformation Mechanisms 47
Jean-Philippe COUZINIE and Louisette PRIESTER

2.1. Dislocation in close proximity to a grain boundary 48

2.2. Elastic interaction between dislocations and grain boundaries: image force 49

2.3. Short range (or core) interaction between dislocations and grain boundaries 52

2.4. Relaxation of stress fields associated with extrinsic dislocations 81

2.5. Relationships between elementary interface mechanisms and mechanical behaviors of materials 98

2.6. Bibliography 102

Chapter 3. Grain Boundaries in Cold Deformation 109
Colette REY, Denis SOLAS and Olivier FANDEUR

3.1. Introduction 109

3.2. Plastic compatibility and incompatibility of deformation at grain boundaries 111

3.3. Internal stresses in polycrystal grains 117

3.4. Modeling local mechanical fields using the finite element method (FEM)129

3.5. Hall-Petch’s law, geometrically necessary dislocations 139

3.6. Sub-grain boundaries and grain boundaries in deformation and recrystallization 145

3.7. Conclusion 155

3.8. Bibliography 156

Chapter 4. Creep and High Temperature Plasticity: Grain Boundary Dynamics 165
Sylvie LARTIGUE-KORINEK and Claude Paul CARRY

4.1. Introduction 165

4.2. Grain boundaries and grain growth 168

4.3. Grain boundaries and creep: mechanisms and phenomenological laws 174

4.4. Grain boundaries and superplasticity 197

4.5. Prospects: creep of nanograined materials 208

4.6. Bibliography 209

Chapter 5. Intergranular Fatigue 217
André PINEAU and Stephen ANTOLOVICH

5.1. Introduction 217

5.2. Low temperature intergranular fatigue 221

5.3. High temperature fatigue 252

5.4. Conclusion 271

5.5. Acknowledgements 272

5.6. Bibliography 272

Chapter 6. Intergranular Segregation and Crystalline Material Fracture 281
Anna FRACZKIEWICZ and Krzysztof WOLSKI

6.1. Grain boundaries and fracture 282

6.2. Intergranular segregation 286

6.3. Segregation and intergranular fracture 297

6.4. Intergranular fracture induced by liquid metals 308

6.5. General conclusion 320

6.6. Bibliography 321

APPENDICES 327

Appendix 1. Bicrystallography and Topological Characterization of Interfacial Defects 329
Sylvie LARTIGUE-KORINEK and Louisette PRIESTER

Appendix 2. Appendices of Chapter 3 333
Colette REY, Denis SOLAS and Olivier FANDEUR

List of Authors 341

Index 343

Louisette Priester is Emerita Professor at the Paris-Sud University, Orsay, France. She has published around 200 articles in journals and contributed to about 150 national and international conferences.