Quantitative evaluation of grain boundary sliding and its dependence on orientation and temperature in pure Zn

Abstract

In the present work, grain boundary sliding (GBS) has been studied for the grains exhibiting different orientations (for indentation parallel and perpendicular to < c > axis) at different temperatures (RT to 200 degrees C) using nanoindentation in pure Zn. Electron back scattered diffraction was utilized to determine the orientation of the indented grains and identify the deformation mechanism, whereas atomic force microscopy was utilized to systematically quantify the GBS. Results indicated that indentation perpendicular to < c > axis exhibits slip induced GBS, whereas the indentation parallel to < c > axis results in pure GBS. The amount of GBS was also found to be strongly dependent upon the orientation of the neighboring grain. Further, the contribution from GBS towards total stain was found to increase with an increase in temperature. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.