Part VIII - Plastic Deformation During Cleavage of LiF

The dislocation arrangements formed during unsteady propagation of cleavage fractures on (010) planes in LiF have been investigated by high-resolution etch-pit techniques and by X-ray diffraction topogvaphy. In impurity-hardened crystals, cracks propagating in any direction on (010) planes at velocities of about 103 cm per sec are usually accompanied by light plastic deformation which is enhanced wherever the crack is allowed to hesitate. Dislocations with [011] type Burger's vectors are often formed looped around the crack tip. They are dragged along with the crack tips leaving edge dislocations lying nearly parallel with the clearage surface about 5µ from it. These dislocations are easily overlooked since they may initially intersect with the cleavage surface infrequently and later may disappear from the crystals due to image forces during aging at room temperature. Although the plastic work associated with these dislocations is only comparable with the reversible (010) surface energy, an instability in crack propagation appears due to a limit of the velocity with which dislocations can be dragged along with the crack. Transition to a fully brittle nonplastic fracture mode occurs when the crack velocity exceeds the velocity with which dislocations can be moved by the stress field of the crack. TRANSITIONS between brittle and ductile modes of fracture appear to be common processes in the behavior of materials in which the flow stress is close to the stress at which brittle cracks can propagate. High-strength engineering alloys fit into this category and the transition from ductile to brittle modes of crack propagation may be associated with catastrophic failures in these important materials. The methods of theoretical mechanics indicate the geometrical conditions in which these processes may occur but the detailed mechanisms controlling the generation of dislocations in the initiation of the plastic mode and the process by which the loss of plasticity occurs on transition to the brittle mode are not yet clear. Since these mechanisms are not amenable to direct observation in engineering alloys we have chosen a semi-ductile alkali halide LiF as a model system in which to observe transition mechanisms between plastic and brittle modes of crack propagation. Cleavage cracks in this system are known to undergo a plastic-elastic transition at velocities between 103 to 104 cm per secl and dislocation configurations in LiF are amenable to study by optical-microscopic observation of dislocation etch pits2 and by X-ray diffraction topography.3 We have been able to identify a dislocation mechanism responsible for the transition from brittle to slightly plastic modes of crack propagation in LiF. A model based on this mechanism permits calculation of the critical crack-propagation velocity for this transition and indicates the importance of the stress dependence of dislocation velocity in determining the critical crack velocity. Of course, this model cannot be carried directly over to more complex materials but it is quite possible that its qualitative features are generally applicable. Dislocations intersecting fresh cleavage surfaces in LiF were reported by Gilman,4 by Forty,5 and by Wash-burn et a1.6 Such dislocations were construed to have been nucleated where the cleavage crack hesitated or stopped, near stress concentrators, such as cleavage steps, on the crystal face. The loci of such dislocations deposited On the cleavage plane in bands were called "stop lines" or "deformation zones". Gilman, Knudsen, and walshl measured the velocity of cleavage cracks in lithium fluoride by evaporating thin resistive strips on the crystal side and recording