In metals, as grain size is reduced below 100nm, conventional dislocation plasticity is suppressed resulting in improvements in strength, hardness, and wears resistance. Existing and emerging components use fine grained metals for these beneficial attributes. However, these benefits can be lost in service if the grains undergo growth during the component’s lifespan. While grain growth is traditionally viewed as a purely thermal process that requires elevated temperature exposure, recent evidence shows that some metals, especially those with nanocrystalline grain structure, can undergo grain growth even at room temperature or below due to mechanical loading. This report has been assembled to survey the key concepts regarding how mechanical loads can drive grain coarsening at room temperature and below. Topics outlined include the atomic level mechanisms that facilitate grain growth, grain boundary mobility, and the impact of boundary structure, loading scheme, and temperature.
Nanocrystalline copper lms were created by both repetitive high-energy pulsed power, to produce material without internal nanotwins; and pulsed laser deposition, to produce nan- otwins. Samples of these lms were indented at ambient (298K) and cryogenic temperatures by immersion in liquid nitrogen (77K) and helium (4K). The indented samples were sectioned through the indented regions and imaged in a scanning electron microscope. Extensive grain growth was observed in the lms that contained nanotwins and were indented cryogenically. The lms that either lacked twins, or were indented under ambient conditions, were found to exhibit no substantial grain growth by visual inspection. Precession transmission elec- tron microscopy was used to con rm these ndings quantitatively, and show that 3 and 7 boundaries proliferate during grain growth, implying that these interface types play a key role in governing the extensive grain growth observed here. Molecular dynamics sim- ulations of the motion of individual grain boundaries demonstrate that speci c classes of boundaries - notably 3 and 7 - exhibit anti- or a-thermal migration, meaning that their mobilities either increase or do not change signi cantly with decreasing temperature. An in-situ cryogenic indentation capability was developed and implemented in a transmission electron microscope. Preliminary results do not show extensive cryogenic grain growth in indented copper lms. This discrepancy could arise from the signi cant di erences in con g- uration and loading of the specimen between the two approaches, and further research and development of this capability is needed.