Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Strain and Fracture
Strain and Fracture
7 8, 2008
Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov, No. 8, pp. 34 38, August, 2008.
Structural changes in polycrystalline copper in the process of uniaxial compression at a rate of 10 3 102 sec 1
at 900C are studied with the aim to determine the conditions under which the mechanism of dynamic
recrystallization is a dominant one. Results of processing of images obtained by the methods of light and elec-
tron transmission microscopy and of data of quantitative metallography with 2D and 3D reconstructions are
used to suggest a scenario of cyclic changes in the structure, which promote the appearance of sources of dy-
namic recrystallization. Latent energy is assumed to be the driving force of the structural rearrangements.
391
0026-0673/08/0708-0391 2008 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
392 B. K. Barakhtin et al.
a b c
Fig. 1. Microstructure of copper in the center of specimens deformed at 900C at a rate of: a) e& = 10 1 sec 3; b ) e& = 10 1 sec 1;
c) e& = 102 sec 1.
N, %
40 When investigating the electrolytically polished micro-
sections we established (see Fig. 4) that the images of their
35
macro- and meso-textures contained orderly located indivi-
30
dual etched clusters or chains composed of clusters, which in
25
their turn were oriented in the direction of plastic deforma-
20 tion. The mean size of the clusters was 9 2 mm, though the
15 diameter of some of them attained 30 mm.
10 Within the fields of view of the microscope the propor-
5 tion of the area S taken by the etched clusters varied depend-
0 ing on the deformation rate. For example, after deformation
450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0
with &e = 10 3, 10 1, and 102 sec 1 the proportion of the
N, %
35 b etched places S = 25, 22, and 30% respectively (the value of
S was determined accurate to 3%). These special features
30
showed that the defects observed were connected with the
25
mode of plastic deformation of the specimens. Adequacy of
20 this assumption was confirmed by steady positive correlation
15 between the proportions of the areas S of the clusters and the
10 heights P of the stellite peaks for the small-diameter grains
5 formed by the mechanism of dynamic recrystallization
0 (Fig. 5).
450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 The correlation equation derived by the least squares
N, % method has the form
35 c
30 S = 0.9P + 18.
25
20 It can be seen from the equation that in the initial state,
15 where the processes of dynamic recrystallization are not acti-
10 vated (P = 0), the structure of the metal already contains po-
5 tential sources, i.e., nuclei of further dynamic recrystalli-
0
zation (S = 18%).
450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 It should be noted that the specimens have been pro-
D, mm duced from technically pure copper that could bear impuri-
Fig. 3. Polymodal distributions of the sizes of grains in the structure ties capable to cause inherited erosion. However, in this
of copper. The arrow points in the direction of the displacement of case the statistically uniform distribution of the impurity
maxima as a result of secondary recrystallization: a) rate of defor- would have prevented the observed deformation rate sensi-
mation e& = 10 3 sec 1; b ) e& = 10 1 sec 1; c) e& = 102 sec 1. tivity of the area of the affected regions. In addition, the ori-
entation of the eroded areas in the direction of plastic defor-
mation and the presence of positive correlation with the
small-size dynamically recrystallized grains as potential height of the satellite peak are obvious indicators of a rela-
sources of generation of the effect of superplasticity. tion between the etched clusters and the processes of active
100 mm
0.5 mm
a b
Fig. 4. Macro- (a) and meso- (b ) scale figures on etched surfaces in the form of clusters and chains on electrolytically polished
sections after compression of the specimen at t = 900C and e& = 10 3 sec 1. The direction of the deformation is shown by the
arrow.
394 B. K. Barakhtin et al.
S, %
32
ries, which is typical for structures of dynamic recrystalli-
zation [4]. Large localized erosions were located near junc-
30 tions of grain boundaries.
28 The assumption in question was also confirmed by the
results of the electron microscope study of the structure of
26 the metal. They showed that the main processes in the evolu-
24 tion of the internal structure of the metal occurred inside the
y = 0.8878x + 18.306 grains at a mesoscale level. For example, in hot
22
(tdef = 900C) compressive deformation at a rate &e = 10 3
20 102 sec 1 the grains acquired a cellular dislocation structure
0 5 10 15
with subgrain boundaries of different morphology. Spe-
P, %
cifically, after deformation with &e = 10 3 sec 1 the cells
Fig. 5. Correlation relation between the proportion of the area S oc- with a size exceeding 1 mm were nonequiaxed (1 : 2); the
cupied by etched clusters and the height P of the peak on the size dis- width of their boundaries did not exceed 200 nm, and most
tribution of small grains in the structure of copper. of the boundaries had a broken appearance (Fig. 7a ),
which is typical for processes of fragmentation occurring at
high plastic strain. Deformation with &e = 10 1 sec 1 caused
plastic straining. A like effect is described in [3], where the formation of equiaxed cells with a size of about 1 mm with
shape of etched dimples is studied in deformation of NiAl shaggy boundaries up to 500 nm wide. In some places the
crystals. boundaries of the cells were characterized by thick diffrac-
We thus assumed that the primary physical cause of the tion contrast repeated with a step of about 300 nm, which re-
appearance of orderly oriented etched figures was the latent flected cyclic ordering of the structure of the boundaries
energy as the driving force of local dissolution of the metal. (Fig. 7b ).
We presume that the value of the latent energy is determined After deformation at a rate &e = 102 sec 1 we detected
by the contribution of two terms. The first term characterizes large (about 1 mm) cells separated by wide (about 600 nm)
the energy connected with the impurities and imperfections boundaries inside which we observed cells up to 10 nm in di-
of the structure (S = 18%) left from the earlier stages of treat- ameter (Fig. 7c ).
ment of the preform. This inherited part of the latent en- When studying electropolished but unetched micro-
ergy manifests itself in the form of oriented channels of plas- sections we established that in many cases the shape and the
tic strain. The second active term corresponds to the con- structure of an individual cluster possessed spherical symme-
tribution of the energy (about 0.9P ) caused by the appear- try. As a rule, the polishing electrolyte affected the central
ance of sources of dynamic recrystallization due to the gen- part of a cluster less than its boundary. This fact shows that
eration, accumulation, and self-organization of crystal struc- the latent energy is higher in the boundary G of a cluster and
ture defects as a result of crystallographic and accommoda- that the structure of its core is resistant to the action of the
tive plastic microstrain. ions of the solution. In a chemically homogeneous material
Adequacy of this assumption is indirectly confirmed by the matrix can be made passive due to local amorphization of
the results of the consideration of superimposed images of the structure, which is the most possible in the stress field of
cluster chains observed on electrolytically polished micro- a disclination due to its splitting. For this reason we may as-
sections and in the structure of grains uncovered by chemical sume that large clusters appear as a result of selective disso-
etching (see Fig. 6). The trajectories of the oriented erosions lution at the places of junction disclinations and that the fine
coincided only partially with the contours of grain bounda- erosions arranged into chains appear due to splitting of
a b
Fig. 6. Microstructure of copper obtained by superimposition of images of unetched and etched polished sections of a specimen
deformed at e& = 10 3 sec 1 at t = 900C: a) 100; b ) 400.
Inheritance of Imperfections and Cycling of Structural Rearrangements in Copper 395
q0, i
1 mm
w
1 mm q0, i + w
1 mm
1 mm c
Fig. 7. Dislocation structures formed after compression of copper at 900C and their schematic representation: a) com-
pression rate e& = 10 3 sec 1; b ) e& = 10 1 sec 1; c) e& = 102 sec 1.
disclinations lying on grain boundaries or in strain channels fections on the places of activation of subsequent dynamic
(Fig. 8). processes.
If the structural changes in hot deformation are accompa-
nied by splitting of junction disclinations and local amor-
phization of the structure, the amorphous regions should
grow in the process of continuing plastic straining and again
acquire crystalline properties. Later on, when located in a
channel of plastic strain, these volumes can be fragmented
b
again by new dislocation-disclination ensembles, and the re-
arrangement process will repeat. Such a model of structural
rearrangements is illustrated by a three-dimensional (3D) re- G
construction of etched clusters and chains (Fig. 9).
The 3D images show that the structural changes detected
in etched chains, individual clusters, and their boundaries oc-
cur in a cyclic manner. Successive alternation of regions of
active etching and passivation of the metal are detectable in c d
the diameters and shapes of concentrically arranged circles
formed by chains of etched dimples. The model suggested Fig. 8. Possible variant of linear splitting of a disclination lying on a
grain boundary or in a strain channel (a); disclination in a ternary
does not contradict the known data on the nature of dynamic junction (b ); schematic representation of the presence of a contour-
recrystallization with participation of active dislocations [4]. ing boundary G (c) in a cluster and of splitting of a junction
The data obtained by the method of quantitative metallo- disclination into an ensemble of less powerful disclinations with an
graphy show the possibility of influence of inherited imper- amorphous region in the center (d ).
396 B. K. Barakhtin et al.
Z Z Z
Y X
X Y X
Y
b c
Y
X
d e
Fig. 9. Three-dimensional reconstruction of regions of images with clusters detected on polished microsections of
specimens after deformation at t = 900C and e& = 10 3 sec 1 (a), e& = 10 1 sec 1 (b ), and e& = 102 sec 1 (c) and
an individual cluster 50 mm in diameter (d ) with its 3D reconstruction (e).