X. Huang

Revealing the Maximum Strength in Nanotwinned Copper

The strength of polycrystalline materials increases with decreasing grain size. Below a critical size, smaller grains might lead to softening, as suggested by atomistic simulations. The strongest size should arise at a transition in deformation mechanism from lattice dislocation activities to grain boundary–related processes. We investigated the maximum strength of nanotwinned copper samples with different twin thicknesses. We found that the strength increases with decreasing twin thickness, reaching a maximum at 15 nanometers, followed by a softening at smaller values that is accompanied by enhanced strain hardening and tensile ductility. The strongest twin thickness originates from a transition in the yielding mechanism from the slip transfer across twin boundaries to the activity of preexisting easy dislocation sources.

Strong crystal size effect on deformation twinning

Deformation twinning in crystals is a highly coherent inelastic shearing process that controls the mechanical behaviour of many materials, but its origin and spatio-temporal features are shrouded in mystery. Using micro-compression and in situ nano-compression experiments, here we find that the stress required for deformation twinning increases drastically with decreasing sample size of a titanium alloy single crystal, until the sample size is reduced to one micrometre, below which the deformation twinning is entirely replaced by less correlated, ordinary dislocation plasticity. Accompanying the transition in deformation mechanism, the maximum flow stress of the submicrometre-sized pillars was observed to saturate at a value close to titanium’s ideal strength. We develop a ‘stimulated slip’ model to explain the strong size dependence of deformation twinning. The sample size in transition is relatively large and easily accessible in experiments, making our understanding of size dependence relevant for applications.

Grain orientation and dislocation patterns

Dislocation patterns have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy and Kikuchi line analysis in pure, polycrystalline aluminium deformed in tension at room temperature in the strain range 0.05–0.34. The angle strain relationship of the dislocation boundaries, their scaling behaviour and the occurrence of similitude show that two dislocation patterns coexist in all grains, albeit, with very different characteristics, dependent on the grain orientation. An analysis of the hardening behaviour of the grains in the polycrystal and a comparison with single crystal behaviour show a similar strong correlation, pointing to the slip pattern as a dominating factor both behind the microstructural evolution and the hardening. The division of the stereographic triangle representing all possible crystallographic orientations at the tensile axis based on microstructural characterization and hardening behaviour, correlates with a division based on slip pattern characteristics.

Deformation band evolution in [110] Al single crystals strained in tension

Several types of deformation bands form during uniaxial extension of Al single crystals for which the tensile axis is initially parallel to [110]. The objectives of the present work are to analyse crystal orientation evolution in the deformation bands and adjoining regions, and to integrate the experimental observations with a crystal mechanics model. The most prominent deformation bands contain secondary slip traces and exhibit crystal rotations consistent with unpredicted slip on a secondary slip system. These special bands of secondary slip (SBSS) become more closely aligned with the tensile axis as extension increases. The evolution of SBSS inclination with extension indicates that SBSS form initially as kink bands and that SBSS boundaries are immobile. SBSS grow during straining by expansion of the volume of material in which secondary slip operates. Deformed matrix (DM) bands are zones between SBSS; primary slip predominates in DM bands. Small intra-DM bands result from spatial variation of the shear amplitudes for the two primary slip systems. The evolution of intra-DM band inclination with extension indicates that intra-DM bands form initially as kink bands and that the band boundaries are mobile, at least to some extent.