Dislocation interactions and low-angle grain boundary strengthening

The transmission of an incoming dislocation through a symmetrical low-angle tilt grain boundary (GB) is studied for {110} < 111 > slip systems in body-centered cubic metals using discrete dislocation dynamics (DD) simulations. The transmission resistance is quantified in terms of the different types of interactions between the incoming and GB dislocations. Five different dislocation interaction types are considered: collinear, mixed-symmetrical junction, mixed-asymmetrical junction, edge junction, and coplanar. Mixed-symmetrical junction formation events are found not only to cause a strong resistance against the incident dislocation penetration, but also to transform the symmetrical low-angle tilt GB into a hexagonal network (a general low-angle GB). The interactions between the incident dislocation and the GB dislocations can form an array of < 100 > dislocations (binary junctions) in non-coplanar interactions, or a single < 100 > dislocation in coplanar interaction. We study how the transmission resistance depends on the mobility of < 100 > dislocations. < 100 > dislocations have usually been treated as immobile in DD simulations. In this work, we discuss and implement the mobility law for < 100 > dislocations. As an example, we report how the mobility of < 100 > dislocations affects the equilibrium configuration of a ternary dislocation interaction. (C) 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.