Sliding behaviour and dislocation structures in aluminium grain boundaries

Abstract Dislocation structures of grain boundaries whose sliding behaviour had already been studied, have been observed by transmission electron microscopy of the slid grain boundaries. The ordered (coincidence) and random boundaries exhibited quite different sliding behaviour and dislocation structures. In the case of ordered boundaries, sliding was difficult and remarkable slide-hardening was shown. Transmission electron microscopy evidenced the presence of a number of EGBDs in these grain boundaries. In contrast, sliding of random boundaries easily took place showing slight slide-hardening. EGBDs were hardly observed in random boundaries. A systematic change in grain boundary misorientation during sliding was observed. An off-coincidence boundary changed into an almost exact coincidence boundary by the absorption of lattice dislocations. These results can be qualitatively explained by a dislocation model of sliding in which the absorption of lattice dislocations into the grain boundary is considered to be the important elementary process of sliding.