Institute of Metals Division - High-Temperature Slip in Tungsten

Single crystals of tungsten were made and deformed in tension at 3000°C. The slip traces so formed on these crystals were analysed to determine the apparent slip system. Results indicate that deformation occurs in the<III> direction on planes of maximum shear stress. This determination agrees with the early work of Taylor and Elam on other body-centered cubic crystals at lout temperatures. SLIP in face-centered cubic and hexagonal close-packed metals has consistently manifested itself in straight traces which indicate that glide takes place on planes of highest atomic density and in directions of closest packing. The slip traces observed on body-centered cubic metals are, on the other hand, frequently branched and wavy, and indicate that while glide takes place in the direction of closest packing, it does not necessarily choose the plane of highest density. The early work of Taylor and Elam1 4 indicated that glide took place in the close-packed direction on planes close to those defined by the maximum shear stress. Subsequent investigations have tried to rationalize these observations in terms of an elementary process on the close-packed planes (110). For example, Elam5 and Grenin~er&apos; have suggested alternate glide on nonparallel (110) planes with the observed result that the summation of these glides results in a trace which defines some plane other than{110). Madden and chen7 have recently reviewed the phenomenological and theoretical aspects of noncrystallographic slip. More recently Koehler&apos; has presented a model of dislocation propagation which permits another rationalization. He indicated that dislocation loops are transferred from one glide plane to another by double cross-slip of screw segments. It is reasonable to assume that, on the average, such transfers may result in a trace which approaches the plane of maximum shear stress. The work described in this paper will show that