The interactions between slip band, deformation twins and grain boundaries in commercial purity titanium
Keywords: titanium
EBSD
local deformation
local stress and strain
microstructure
high energy x-ray diffraction
HR-EBSD

This thesis apply High Resolution Electron Back Scatter Diffraction (HR-EBSD) technique to a variety of microstructure features and their interactions in pure h.c.p polycrystals. By correlating high quality Kikuchi patterns with a reference pattern, the relative state and distribution of strain, stress, and geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) density can be obtained with high strain sensitivity (10-4) and angular resolution (10 radian). This technique is companied by a further investigation of subsurface features using Differential Aperture X-ray Micro-diffraction (DAXM) technique. The two technique have shown excellent agreement in capturing the magnitude and distribution of stress and GND.
Stress field and GND distribution induced by slip band and grain boundary interactions, including blocked slip band with no observable slip transfer in SEM and slip transfer, were characterised. It was found that some blocked slip bands lead to high and localised stress concentration in the neighbouring grain while others did not, and no stress concentration were correlated with transferred slip bands. These three categories of interactions were rationalised using a slip transfer criteria (called LRB criteria) by investigating the geometric alignments between the impinging slip system and all possible slip systems in the neighbouring grain. The level of stress concentration were quantified into a stress intensity factor K, following the Frank, Eshelby, and Nabarro (FEN) model. It was found that the level of stress intensity correlates well with the number of dislocations within the pile up plane.
The slip band and grain boundary interaction case that led to the highest magnitude of stress intensity factor was further investigated using DAXM experiments. The 3D data set informed us additional information hidden below the sample surface. The distribution of stress concentration in 3D is a ribbon conforming to the line of intersection between slip plane and grain boundary. Stress intensity factor calculation along this ribbon have shown large variations which led to a concern that sometimes 2D results might not be conclusive. For example, if damage is observed in sample surface, there is a possibility that large populations of damage already exist below sample surface as a result of the stress fluctuations. The level of stress concentration and distribution measured by both HR-EBSD and DAXM agree with each other and 3D lattice rotation gradient used in DAXM GND calculation was found to affect the range of GND distribution and how fast it decays away from grain boundary.
Twinning is a deformation mechanism in HCP metal that is equally important as dislocation slip. The stress concentrations associated with twin propagation, approaching grain boundary, and thickening were characterised using HR-EBSD, from which the calculated stress tensor were used to generate a local Schmid factor (LSF) map. It was found that during twin propagation, local positive shear provides a favourable LSF condition that promote twin tip extension while supress it from thicken. When twin tip is approaching the grain boundary, the positive shear stress field no longer favour twin propagation, a narrow positive LSF field still exist at the tip of twin, promoting it to grow thick. During propagation and thickening process, the LSF seem to only affect the tip of twins and therefore these processes are possibly tip controlled.