Interaction mechanism between edge dislocations and asymmetrical tilt grain boundaries investigated via quasicontinuum simulations

Abstract

The interactions between edge dislocations and grain boundaries---dislocation pileup, dislocation absorption, and dislocation transmission---are studied by performing quasicontinuum simulations. The $⟨112⟩$ asymmetrical tilt grain boundaries with different misorientation angles are used. The atomic configurations and stress fields of equilibrium and nonequilibrium asymmetrical grain boundaries are investigated in detail by comparison with analytical models. The influence of the grain boundary structure on the stress concentration due to dislocation pileup and the accommodation of extrinsic dislocations in the grain boundaries are also examined by using low- and high-angle grain boundaries. The critical forces on the dislocation in small-angle tilt grain boundaries for it to eject from the boundaries are evaluated by atomic simulations, and the results are compared with dislocation theory. It is also found that the rearrangement of the grain boundary dislocations with local grain boundary sliding in the local region, where the extrinsic dislocation is absorbed, is the characteristic accommodation mechanism of low-angle asymmetrical grain boundaries. The effects of the interaction between dislocations and grain boundaries on the mechanical properties of coarse-grained metals with dislocation sources in their grain and on those of nanocrystalline metals without sources in their grain are also discussed.