Institute of Metals Division - On the Thermally Activated Mechanism of Prismatic Slip in Magnesium Single Crystals

The effect of strain and strain rate on the critical resolved shear stress for prismatic slip in specially oriented single magnesium crystals was determined over a range of temperatures in an effort to identify the thermally activated strain-rate controlling dislocation process. Below about 450°K prismatic slip was preceded by twinning and fracturing. Above 450°K extensive prismatic slip was obtained followed by fracturing. Neither the Peierls&apos; mechanism nor the dislocation intersection mechanism can account for the observations. The data, however, are in good agreement with the dictates of Friedel&apos;s theory for cross slip to the prismatic plane. PREVIOUS investigations on single and polycrys-talline magnesium have resulted in the identification of the mechanisms of plastic deformation summarized in Table I. The-only well-confirmed mechanisms are {0001}, (1010}, (1011) slip plus (1012) twinning. The other twinning modes were only tentatively established and additional investigations are required to further confirm their operation. As noted in Table I, slip in this hexagonal close-packed metal invariably occurs in the direction of greatest atomic density, revealing that the Burger&apos;s vector for-active slip dislocations is always given by b = a/3<1210>. Slip is easily induced on the basal plane, and recent investigations have shown that the strain-rate controlling mechanism at low temperatures is the thermally activated intersection of the glide dislocations with dislocations threading the basal plane. In contrast, very little is known about prismatic slip. It has been reported to be active at points of stress concentration in polycrystals below