Institute of Metals Division - Plastic Deformation of Aluminum Multicrystals

Specimens consisting of several crystals, each with a prescribed geometry and a controlled orientation with respect to both the extermally intposed stress and the highboring crystals, werer deformed in tension at room temperature. It is shown that the influence of a grain boundary on the plastic defolrmation of a mullicrystal depends on the extent to which the presence of the grain boundary, contributes to the necessity 01. multiple slip in the component crystals. MANY investigations were carried out in the past on the plastic deformation of aluminum single crystals, bicrystals, and polycrystals. The various studies of bicrystals aimed primarily at elucidating the influence of grain boundaries on the mechanisms of plastic deformation. In the earlier studies the emphasis was placed primarily on finding the "strength" contributed by a grain boundary. In more recent investigations it became apparent that the grain boundary does not contribute any strength per se but rather acts by influencing the mechanism of plastic deformation in the adjoining grains. The concept thus emerged of the plastic properties of a bi-crystal, and by extension of a polycrystal. depending solely on the mechanism of deformation prevailing in each grain. The contribution of the grain boundaries thus becomes limited to the type of restrictions imposed on each grain by its neighbors. The present investigation of the behavior of specimens consisting of more than two crystals was designed for the purpose of studying the influence of the grain boundary in simple aggregates. The findings of this study further support the concept that the restriction imposed on a deforming crystal by its neighbor constitutes the predominant factor in the plastic deformation of polycrystals. The term "multicrystal", in contrast with single and polycrystals, is used to describe specimens consisting of several crystals. Each one of the component crystals has a prescribed geometry and a controlled orientation with respect to both the externally imposed stress and the neighboring crystals. Two groups of multicrystals were prepared. All the component crystals of both groups of multicrystals had the axial orientation (isoaxial multicrystals) shown in Fig. 2, with the primary slip plane and slip direction both at 45 deg to the specimen axis. In the first group (hereafter referred to as group I) the component crystals were symmetrically oriented with respect to the plane of the grain boundary; the primary slip plane and slip direction were respectively at an angle of 60 and 30 deg to this plane. For the second group (group 11) the axial orientation remained the same and the relative positions of the primary slip plane and slip direction are shown in Fig. 3. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS The material used was aluminum 99.993 pct pure, according to the manufacturer. The specimens were produced by growth from the melt in a horizontal graphite container. In order to maintain the prescribed geometry of the individual crystals of a multicrystal, a technique described elsewhere was used.' The specimens were grown under a small, positive pressure of helium at a rate of approximately 1 mm per min. annealed in air for 24 hr at 640°C and cooled over a period of several hours to room temperature. All the multi-crystals were rectangular in cross-section, 6 by 18 mm (see Fig. 1) and from 150 to 170 mm long. In each group bicrystals, tricrystals and quadru-crystals were prepared as shown in Figs. 1 and 4.