No Arabic abstract
Addition of solutes is commonly used to stabilize nanocrystalline materials against grain growth. However, segregating at grain boundaries, these solutes also affect the process of dislocation nucleation from grain boundaries under applied stress. Using atomistic simulations we demonstrate that the effect of solutes on the dislocation nucleation strongly depends on the distribution of solutes at the grain boundary, which can vary dramatically depending on the solute type. In particular, our results indicate that the solutes with a smaller size mismatch can be more effective in suppressing dislocation emission from grain boundaries. Bearing in mind that dislocation slip originating from grain boundaries or their triple junctions is the dominant mechanism of plastic deformation when grain sizes are reduced to the nanoscale, we emphasize the importance of the search for the optimal solute additions, which would stabilize the nanocrystalline material against grain growth and, at the same time, effectively suppress the dislocation nucleation from the grain boundaries.
While it is known that alloy components can segregate to grain boundaries (GBs), and that the atomic mobility in GBs greatly exceeds the atomic mobility in the lattice, little is known about the effect of GB segregation on GB diffusion. Atomistic computer simulations offer a means of gaining insights into the segregation-diffusion relationship by computing the GB diffusion coefficients of the alloy components as a function of their segregated amounts. In such simulations, thermodynamically equilibrium GB segregation is prepared by a semi-grand canonical Monte Carlo method, followed by calculation of the diffusion coefficients of all alloy components by molecular dynamics. As a demonstration, the proposed methodology is applied to a GB is the Cu-Ag system. The GB diffusivities obtained exhibit non-trivial composition dependencies that can be explained by site blocking, site competition, and the onset of GB disordering due to the premelting effect.
Impurities are often driven to segregate to grain boundaries, which can significantly alter a materials thermal stability and mechanical behavior. To provide a comprehensive picture of this issue, the influence of a wide variety of common nonmetal impurities (H, B, C, N, O, Si, P and S) incorporated during service or materials processing are studied using first-principles simulations, with a focus on identifying changes to the energetics and mechanical strength of a Cu $Sigma$5 (310) grain boundary. Changes to the grain boundary energy are found to be closely correlated with the covalent radii of the impurities and the volumetric deformations of polyhedra at the interface. The strengthening energies of each impurity are evaluated as a function of covalent radius and electronegativity, followed by first-principles-based tensile tests on selected impurities. The strengthening of a B-doped grain boundary comes from an enhancement of the charge density among the adjacent Cu atoms, which improves the connection between the two grains. Alternatively, the detrimental effect of O results from the reduction of charge density between the Cu atoms. This work deepens the understanding of the possible beneficial and harmful effects of impurities on grain boundaries, providing a guide for materials processing studies.
We present a combined study by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and atomistic simulations of the emission of dissociated dislocation loops by nanoindentation on a (001) fcc surface. The latter consist of two stacking-fault ribbons bounded by Shockley partials and a stair-rod dislocation. These dissociated loops, which intersect the surface, are shown to originate from loops of interstitial character emitted along the <110> directions and are usually located at hundreds of angstroms away from the indentation point. Simulations reproduce the nucleation and glide of these dislocation loops.
Crack growth behaviour along the coherent twin boundary (CTB), i.e., $Sigma$3{112} of BCC Fe is investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The growth of an atomistically sharp crack with {112}$<$110$>$ orientation has been examined along the two opposite $<$111$>$ directions of CTB under mode-I loading at a constant strain rate. Separate MD simulations were carried out with crack inserted in the left side, right side and middle of the specimen model system. The results indicate that the crack grows differently along the two opposite $<$111$>$ directions. In case of a crack inserted in the left side, the crack grows in ductile manner, while it propagates in semi-brittle manner in the case of crack inserted in the right side. The directional dependence of crack growth along the CTB is also confirmed by the stress-strain behaviour. This anisotropy in crack growth behaviour has been attributed to the twinning-antitwinning asymmetry of 1/6$<$111$>$ partial dislocations on {112} planes.
Dipolar dislocation loops, prevalent in fcc metals, are widely recognized as controlling many physical aspects of plastic deformation. We present results of 3D dislocation dynamics simulations that shed light on the mechanisms of their formation, motion, interactions, and large-scale patterning. We identify two main formation mechanisms, enabled by cross-slip, and show that arrays of dipoles can be easily formed as a result of the interaction between glide screw dislocations. We present a systematic analysis of the spectrum of possible junctions that can form as a result of mutual interaction between dipoles, and between dipoles and glide dislocations. We show that fully immobile dislocation segments arise in particular cases of these interactions, leading to hardening and Frank-Read type sources. We reveal that the collective motion of dipolar loop arrays can be induced by glide dislocations in the channels of Persistent Slip Bands (PSB), and result in their clustering within PSB channel walls. An efficient tripolar drag mechanism is found to contribute to the clustering of dipolar loops near channel walls.