Size Dependence of Grain Boundary Migration in Metals under Mechanical Loading

The greatly increased grain boundary (GB) mobility in nanograined metals under mechanical loading is distinguished from that in their coarse-grained counterparts. The feature leads to softening of nanograined materials and deviation of strength from the classical Hall-Petch relationship. In this Letter, grain size dependences of GB migration in nanograined Ag, Cu, and Ni under tension were investigated quantitatively in a wide size range. As grain size decreases from submicron, GB migration intensifies and then diminishes below a critical grain size. The GB migration peaks at about 80, 75, and 38 nm in Ag, Cu, and Ni, respectively. The suppression of GB migration below a critical size can be attributed to GB relaxation during sample processing or by postthermal annealing. With relaxed GBs the governing deformation mechanism of nanograins shifts from GB migration to formation of through-grain twins or stacking faults. GB relaxation, analogous to GB segregation, offers a novel approach to stabilizing nanograined materials under mechanical loading.