Towards resolving the anonymity of pyramidal slip in magnesium

HD Fan and JA El-Awady, MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING A-STRUCTURAL MATERIALS PROPERTIES MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROCESSING, 644, 318-324 (2015).

DOI: 10.1016/j.msea.2015.07.080

Plasticity in magnesium crystals oriented for c-axis compression has been usually attributed to < c+a > dislocation slip on second-order pyramidal 11 (2) over bar2 planes. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we investigated the formation and slip characteristics of < c+a > dislocations on second-order pyramidal planes. It is shown that the critical c-axis compressive stress for these dislocations is almost seven times that for < c+a > dislocations on first-order pyramidal 10 (1) over bar1 planes. In particular, it is concluded that first-order pyramidal near-screw < c+a > dislocations play a predominant role during the c-axis compression of magnesium crystals. Careful reexaminations of published experimental observations show good agreements with the current predictions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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