Grain Boundary Motion under Dynamic Loading: Mechanism and Large-Scale Molecular Dynamics Simulations

C Brandl and TC Germann and AG Perez-Bergquist and EK Cerreta, MATERIALS RESEARCH LETTERS, 1, 220-227 (2013).

DOI: 10.1080/21663831.2013.830993

Grain boundaries (GBs) are not static structures during shock loading, despite the short timescales. We present a mechanistic explanation for why non-coherent Sigma 3 GBs are particularly mobile, due to their consisting of coherent twin boundaries every third (111) glide plane, separated by incoherent twin boundary segments with three Shockley partial dislocations that can readily glide into either grain. Asymmetric GBs with such structures can thus move in response to the elastic driving force provided by uniaxial compression. We present large-scale molecular dynamic simulations that illustrate this mechanism, which explains the Sigma 3 GB faceting recently observed in shock-recovered copper multi-crystals.

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