• Grain boundaries: Crystalline solids generally

consist of a large number of grains separated by

boundaries.
• Grain boundaries (GBs) are transition regions between
neighboring crystals.
– Low-angle boundaries
– High-angle boundaries
• A general grain boundary has five degree of freedom.
– Three degrees specify the orientation of one grain
with respect to the other.
– Two degrees specify the orientation of the boundary
with respect to one of the grains.
• Linear intercept (l): l = L / (NlM)
• GB area per unit volume (Sv): l = 2 / Sv
• Grain size: average diameter of grain (D)
– Assuming grains are spherical
Sv = ½ (4πr2) / [4/3(πr3)] = 3 / (2r) = 3/D
– D = 1.5l
• Tilt boundaries
– consisting entirely of edge dislocations
– spacing between dislocations,
D = (b/2) / sin(θ/2) ~ b/θ (for small θ)
• Twist boundaries
– Consisting entirely of screw dislocations
• Dislocation model of grain boundary can be used to
compute the energy of low-angle boundary (θ < 10o).
E = Eo θ (A – ln θ)
– Because of the (– ln θ) term, low-angle boundaries tend to combine
to form boundaries of large misorientation.
• Ordinary (random, high-angle) grain boundary has high
surface energy (γgb).
• Special boundaries: certain high angle between two
adjacent crystals produce a low surface energies.
– Coincidence boundaries
– Coherent twin boundaries
 Coincidence site lattice (CSL) boundaries

• CSL boundaries: a certain fraction of lattice points

coincide in two grains.
• CSL boundary is characterized by a symbol Σ, the
reciprocal of the fraction of lattice sites that coincide.
• CSL boundaries with low Σ values can have a significant
influence on the mechanical behavior of a polycrystalline
materials.
– lower grain boundary energy
– lower diffusivity
– lower susceptibility to solute segregation
– greater resistance to grain boundary sliding, fracture and cavitation
– greater resistance to initiation of localized corrosion
• Control of the character and density of low Σ –
boundaries can produce superior polycrystalline
materials.
• Grain boundary triple junctions: sites where four grains
or three grain boundaries meet.
• Triple junctions have a great influence on the mechanical
properties of materials with nanometer grain size.
• Grain boundary
dislocations (GBDs)
– A GBD belongs to grain
boundary and is not a
common lattice
dislocation.
• Grain boundary ledge
– GB ledges can function
as effective sources of
dislocations
 Twinning
• Twinning occurs in HCP metals at ambient temperature.
• BCC metal deforms by twinning at subambient
temperatures.
• Twinning mechanism is not of great importance in the
deformation of FCC metals.
•Deformation twins are crystallographically orientated along specific
planes.

•Twins cannot propagate through grain boundaries because of the

crystallographic requirements.

•Annealing twins are parallel faced.

•Annealing twins occur during recrystallization and grain growth.

Deformation twins in silicon nitride
 Twinning in HCP metals
• The common twinning elements are (10-12) plane and [-1011]
direction. It produces a shear strain of [c/√3a - √3a /c].
• Twinning results in a compression or elongation along the c-axis,
depending on the c/a ratio.
• The twinning process serves to reorient the crystal lattice to favor
further basal slip.
 Comparison between twinning and slip

• The twinned region of a grain is a mirror image of the

original lattice.
– The slipped region has the same orientation as that of the
original, unslipped grain.
• Twinning consists of uniform shear strain.
– Slip consists of a shear displacement of an entire block of
crystal.
• Twinning direction is always polar.
– The slip direction can be positive or negative depending the
stress direction.
• Twinning results in a shape change of a definite type and
magnitude, as determined by the crystallographic nature
of the twinning elements.
• The stress necessary to form
twins is generally greater, but
less sensitive to temperature,
than that necessary for slip.
• The stress required to initiate
twinning is much larger than that
for its propagation.
• The bursting of twins during
straining can lead to a serrated
form of stress-strain curve.
Effect of temperature on the stress required
for twinning and slip
• An increase in strain rate or a decrease in temperature tends to
favor twinning over slip.
• Twinning is not thermally activated.
• Thermally activated dislocation motion becomes very difficult at
low temperatures. Twinning is favored below Tt.
 Effect of stacking fault energy on twinning

• As the stacking-fault
energy of an alloy is
decreased, the possibility
for twinning increases.
• Twinning generates
internal barriers to slip.
The result is an increase
in work-hardening.
Grain boundaries in plastic deformation
• At low temperatures (T < 0.5 Tm), GBs act as obstacles
to dislocation motion.

• Deformation in each grain must be accommodated by its

neighbors. This accommodation is realized by multiple
slip in the vicinity of GBs, which leads to strain-
hardening.

• At high temperatures, GBs function as sites of weakness.

GB sliding may occur, leading to plastic flow or opening
up voids along GBs.

• At high temperatures, GBs can act as sources and sinks

of vacancies, leading to diffusional flow.
• Hall-Petch relationship: σy = σo + kD-1/2
 Hall-Petch theory
• A dislocation pileup can “burst” through a GB due to the
stress concentration at the head of the pileup.
n dislocations in the pileup of length d, (d =D/2)
D: grain diameter
τc: the critical stress required to overcome the GB obstacles
τa: applied stress

αdτ a
n=
Gb π τa ≥τo + kD −1 2
nτ a ≥ τ c  2Gbτc 
−1 2

k = 
απDτ a2  απ 
≥τc
2Gb
Dislocation pile-up model for Hall-Petch relation
The stress concentration produced by a pile-up in one
grain activated dislocation sources in the adjacent grain.
∀ τ = (τa – τo) (D/4r)1/2 = τc
∀ τa = τo + 2τc r1/2 D-1/2
 Li’s theory

• GB as a source of
dislocations (GB ledges
generate dislocations.)

ρ: dislocation density
τ = το + αGb√ρ
ρ α Sv α 1/D
τ = το + α’GbD-1/2
 Meyers-Ashworth theory
• Stress concentrations
occur at GBs during
elastic loading due to
compatibility requirement.
• The plastic flow of the GB
region attenuates the
stress concentration. →
microyielding
• Plastic deformation in the
continuous matrix. →
macroyielding
σy = σfB + 8k(σfGB – σfB)D-1/2 + 16k2(σfGB – σfB)D-1

The last term is important at small grain size.

• Nanocrystalline materials
with grain size smaller
than ~10-20 nm:
– Atoms in GBs occupy
significant volume
fraction.
– A simple extrapolation
using Hall-Petch
relation may be failed.
– Plastic deformation is
dominated by grain
boundary diffusion or
grain boundary sliding.