Analysis of Creep Deformation Due to Grain-Boundary Diffusion/Sliding

Abstract

For steady-state deformation caused by grain-boundary diffusion and viscous grain-boundary sliding, the creep rate of regular polyhedral grains is analyzed by the energy-balance method. For the microstructure, the grain-grain interaction increases the degree of symmetry of diffusional field, resulting in a decrease of the effective diffusion distance. Meanwhile, the viscous grain-boundary sliding is found to decrease the creep rate. The present analysis reveals that the grain-size exponent is dependent on the grain size and the grain-boundary viscosity: the exponent becomes unity for small grain sizes and/or high viscosity, while it is three for large grain sizes and/or low viscosity.