INTERACTIONSBETWEENDISLOCATIONSANDGRAIN.docVIP

Collaborative Proposal: The Role of Grain Boundaries in Non-Nano Polycrystal Deformation Robert H. Wagoner, The Ohio State University (OSU), PI Brent L. Adams, Brigham Young University (OSU), PI Elizabeth A. Holm, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Principal Advisor (These are shown on a separate page to show the page limit for the Project Summary.) PROJECT SUMMARY (next page) Grain size is a critical aspect determining the strength of polycrystalline metals. Grain size reduction alone can increase the strength of steels by a factor of 3 for “normal” (non-nano) grain sizes (1 ?m). In spite of its identification more than 50 years ago (Hall-Petch Effect [1,2]) and its undisputed practical importance, its origins are poorly understood and quantitative predictions have been elusive. Intellectual Merit - PI’s Adams and Wagoner have been developing ways to simulate and measure the interactions of large numbers of dislocations (1014/m2) with grain boundaries. Recently, through an NSF EAGER award, two breakthroughs were made: A multi-scale simulation scheme was demonstrated. It predicted quantitatively, for the first time, the Hall-Petch effect. New EBSD techniques were developed, thus enabling the resolution of dislocation densities and characters for typical densities in annealed polycrystals (i.e. about two orders of magnitude lower than were previously resolvable). Both of these rely on knowing the grain boundary obstacle strength, τobs. The proposed work capitalizes on these advances to measure and verify τobs, thus solving a long-standing challenge in metallurgical science and enabling a new phase of polycrystalline material design. A “Critical Experiment” will be carried out by the three collaborating groups. It involves the in-situ loading and deformation of an Fe bicrystal, simulation using atomistic and the multi-scale methods, and the high-resolution measurement of dislocation tensor distributions within the specimen. Each of these aspects requ