Orientation Distribution of ∑3 Grain Boundary Planes in Ni Before and After Grain Boundary Engineering

摘要

The distribution of grain boundary plane orientations in polycrystalline Ni has been measured before and after grain boundary engineering. The grain boundary engineered microstructure has a relatively higher concentration of ∑3 grain boundaries and, when compared to the initial structure, more of these boundaries have orientations that are inclined by more than 10° from the (111) orientation of the ideal coherent twin. Although the conventionally measured grain size is not affected by the grain boundary engineering process, the average size of the regions containing only ∑3~n grain boundaries increases by nearly a factor of two. The observations indicate that the increase in the relative population of ∑3 grain boundaries results both from the preferential elimination of random grain boundaries and the generation of new ∑3 grain boundaries which do not have (111) grain boundary plane orientations.