Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
(not tested)
Structure and energy of grain boundaries
Low-angle and high-angle grain boundaries
Special low-energy high-angle grain boundaries
Interphase interfaces
Coherent, semicoherent and incoherent interphase boundaries
Shape of precipitates: Effects of misfit strain and interfacial energy
Loss of coherency
References:
Porter and Easterling, Ch. 3.3.1-3.3.3, 3.4
Allen and Thomas, Ch. 5.3
Jim Howe, Interfaces in Materials
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Grain boundaries
Single-phase polycrystalline material consist many crystals or grains that have different
crystallographic orientation. There exist atomic mismatch within the regions where grains meet.
These regions are grain boundaries.
Structure and energy of a grain boundary is defined by the misorientation of the two grains and
the orientation of the boundary plane. 5 independent variables (degrees of freedom) are needed
to define the rotation axis, rotation angle and the plane of the boundary. Rigid-body translation of
two grains with respect to each other add 3 more variables.
2 special cases can be distinguished:
pure tilt boundary - axis of rotation is
parallel to the plane of the boundary
axis of tilt
boundary
twist axis
axis of tilt
symmetry plane
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
D sin
b
=
2 2
D=
D - dislocation spacing
- misorientation angle
b
b
2 sin( / 2)
for small
h
low-angle symmetrical tilt boundary in a
simple cubic lattice
x
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
b
D =
cos
D| =
b|
sin
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
GB ~
1
~
D
GB
10-15
random highangle GB
lowangle
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
xx
SV
GB
Pt
2340
660
Ag
1140
375
Au
1410
378
Cu
1670
625
examples:
[mJ/m2 ]
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
coherent twin
boundary
incoherent twin boundary (much higher energy)
good atomic fit at coherent twin boundary low energy comparable to that of a stacking fault
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
somewhat similar to
dislocations adopting lowenergy configurations in
Peierls energy landscape
Faceting readily occurs and can reduce energy of the boundary misorientation of grains is more important than the orientation of
boundary planes.
The size facets can be large (observed in optical microscope) for
coherent twins and is smaller for other low-energy GBs - look
curved in a microscope.
metal carbide precipitation on GBs (1),
incoherent twin boundaries (2) & coherent
twin boundaries (3) in Fe-20Cr-25Ni (wt.%)
stainless steel
Sourmail & Bhadeshia,
Metall. Mater. Trans. A 36A, 23, 2005
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
53.1 rotation of a cubic lattice about [100] cases 1/5 of the lattice sites to coincide
The (100) twist and (210) tilt GB shown above are high-density planes of CSL correspond to
low-energy GBs
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
tilt boundary
(GD plane paper)
twist boundary
(GD plane || paper)
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
experiment
Interphase boundaries
interphase boundary separates two different phases which may have different composition,
crystal structure and/or lattice parameter limited (if any) options for perfect matching of
planes and directions in the two crystals
depending on atomic structure, 3 types of interphase boundaries can
be distinguished: coherent, semicoherent, and incoherent
coherent (commensurate) interface: two crystals match perfectly at
the interface plane (small lattice mismatch can be accommodated by
elastic strain in the adjacent crystals)
semicoherent (discommensurate) interface: lattice mismatch is
accommodated by periodic array of misfit dislocations
incoherent
semicoherent
a a1
lattice misfit at the interface: = 2
a1
even in the case of perfect atomic matching, there is always a chemical
contribution to the interface energy
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
coherent
orientation relationship:
1 10
// 11 2 0
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
a2 > a1
=
a2 a1
>0
a1
Smith and Shiflet, Mater. Sci. Eng. 86, 67, 1987
This coherency strain reduces the interfacial energy at the expense of increasing energy of the
two phases adjoining the interface coherent interfaces are favored when
(1) interface is strong,
(2) misfit is small (few percent),
(3) the size of one of the crystals is small (thin overlayer or small precipitate)
While the structure of the interface is perfect, the interfacial energy is due to the bonding between
atoms from different phase (has only chemical contribution): =
1 200 mJ/m 2
coh
chem
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
a2 a1
a1
b=
a1 + a2
2
a2 b
b1
D1 =
1
D2 =
b2
2
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
D1 = D2 6.3a >
b
= 5.44a
b=
a
2
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
coherent precipitates
when and phases have different crystal structures, orientation relationship leading to lowenergy coherent or semi-coherent interface may be found only for one habitat plane
other planes will be incoherent and will have higher interfacial energies
the equilibrium shape of the precipitate can then be determined
similarly to the equilibrium shape of crystallites (-plot and Wulff
construction) large coherent facets terminated by incoherent edges
coh
Examples:
hcp Ti in bcc Ti (slowly cooled two-phase Ti alloys)
tetragonal phase precipitates in Al-Cu
hcp precipitates in Al-Ag
orientation relationship:
1 10
// 11 2 0
precipitate in
at.% Ag alloy
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, LeonidAl4.2
Zhigilei
cubic symmetry of the matrix many possible orientations for the precipitate plates
Widmansttten pattern in iron meteorites: precipitation and growth of Ni-poor kamacite (bcc)
plates in the taenite (fcc) crystals proceeds by diffusion of Ni at 450-700C, and take place
during very slow cooling that takes several million years the presence of large-scale
Widmansttten patterns proves extraterrestrial origin of the material
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
heterogeneous nucleation at GB can give rise to precipitates that are incoherent on one side, and
semi-coherent on the other side
Cu-In alloy
The effects of elastic interactions between the matrix and the precipitate can be as important as
for the interfacial energy. The two effects can compete: this is one reason for changes during
growth, such as the loss of coherency.
coherency strain should be accounted
for in minimization of the free energy:
A
i =1
i i
+ Gs min
a a
a
the elastic energy associated with the dilatational strains is of order 2 V, where V is the volume
of precipitate
for isotropic matrix and precipitate, the elastic energy is independent of shape: Gs = 4G2V
effect of difference in elastic properties:
Precipitate stiffer than matrix: minimum elastic energy occurs for a sphere
Precipitate more compliant than matrix: minimum elastic energy occurs for a disc
Anisotropic matrix: most cubic metals are more compliant along <100> and harder along <111>
elastic energy
considerations
discs
to {100}in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
University
of Virginia,
MSE 6020: favor
Defects
andparallel
Microstructure
The precipitate with the smallest nucleation barrier (generally) appears first. Small nucleation
barriers are associated with coherent interfaces (small interfacial energy) and similar lattices
(small elastic energies from misfit).
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Loss of coherency
competition of volumetric elastic strain energy and interfacial energy precipitate may start as
fully coherent but nucleate interfacial dislocations once it reaches a critical size
Assuming that elastic strain energy is significant for the fully coherent precipitate but not for
incoherent or semicoherent ones, the free energies of crystals with coherent and non-coherent
precipitates can be written as
4
Gcoherent = Gelastic + Ginterface = 4G 2 r 3 + chem 4r 2
3
Gcoherent
Gnon coherent
Gcoherent = Gnon coherent
rcr
rcr =
3 st
4G 2
st ~
rcr ~