Growth of denuded zone by grain boundary fluid flowin Mg alloys

A new mechanism is proposed for the growth of denuded zone and superplasticity in general. This is the flow of grain boundary fluid that has a Herschel-Bulkley behavior. Such a mechanism could provide a power-law stress dependence, a threshold stress, a grain size effect and an activation energy comparable to grain boundary diffusion. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc.