Search Documents

By R. C. Gifkins

R. C. Gifkins (CSIRO)—In this paper evidence is put forward to support the idea of grain boundary shearing in aluminum at 4.2°K and the phenomenon is explained in terms of a low-temperature "equicohesive temperature". It is stated that these findings show that grain boundary shear cannot be ruled out in any situation by temperature arguments alone. We believe, from our own recent study of "apparent grain boundary sliding'' at temperatures below 0.45 Tm, that it can be ruled out on temperature arguments alone.45 Our experiments were made principally with magnesium and a Ms-A1 alloy ("Magnox A12"). Careful examination of offsets of marker lines or steps at grain boundaries produced by deformation at room temperature (-0.3 Tm) showed many of these to result from curvature over narrow zones along the grain boundaries. A significant residuum did, however, appear as a sharp offset or step. It was found that the mean value of this step rose to a small value during the first 0.5 to 1 pct strain and then remained at this level with further strain. Moreover, exactly the same values were obtained (at the same stress) at 75°C instead of 21°C. That is, in this range of temperature the "apparent sliding" was not temperature-sensitive. At 125°C and above there was sliding which increased with strain and which was temperature-dependent. When this temperature-dependent sliding was used to calculate the sliding to be expected at room temperature, this underestimated the "apparent sliding" by a factor of 104. The conclusion drawn is that the "apparent sliding" consists of shear localized in a zone of a width measured perhaps in microns, whereas it seems that true sliding occurs on the boundary surface.46 A model for such localized shear has been developed in general terms, following a similar model of Urie and Wain.47 Other strong evidence for low-temper- ature sliding has been based on the offsets of marker lines consisting of a substructure seen using the electron microscope to resolve these.48 We have repeated this work and found that the effects can be accounted for in terms of cracks in an oxide film which is produced when the substructure is etched up; these cracks form over zones of shear rather than at actual interfaces. However, in aluminum at room temperature (-0.3 Tm) there is no "apparent sliding" which is optically detectable. We suggest that, when the temperature is much lower (and possibly the rate of strain higher, too), as in the experiments of Chin et al., then aluminum behaves like magnesium at room temperature, and a narrow zone of shear develops to accommodate differences in strain across the grain boundary. Such a zone could well give rise to triple-point cracks. It is hoped to investigate these suggestions further. B. Y. Chin, W. F. Hosford, Jr., and W. A. Backofen (authors' reply)—It is interesting to have Dr. Gif-kin's comments, although it is somewhat difficult to reply in detail without the reference containing the work that he describes. Apparently though, he does find a low-temperature temperature-independent sliding that would seem to be related to the observations reported here. Perhaps some of the difficulty has semantic origins, growing out of the distinction between ('true sliding" and "apparent sliding".

Jan 1, 1965

By Robin O. Williams

Robin 0. Williams (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)— The authors have questioned the degree to which the coherency strains between the iron-rich and chromium-rich phases are isotropic as proposed in Ref. 5 on the basis of the difference between the elastic properties of the two phases. The relative magnitude of the stresses is determined by the moduli as shown by Eqs. [2], [3], and [4] of Ref. 34. However, the moduli of the two phases have no direct bearing on the uniformity of either the stress or strain within either phase. The idea that the strains are isotropic within each phase (but normally of different magnitude and always of different sign) is based entirely upon the experimental observation that X-ray line broadening has not been detected even when the particles become rather large. It has not proven possible to grow the particles sufficiently large that they lose coherency. Based upon this lack of line broadening one can estimate an upper limit for the nonuniformity of the strains within each phase as follows. It is considered possible to detect line broadening if it is as great as 10 pct of the separation of the K, doublet for the (211) line using chromium radiation. The doublet separation would correspond to a total strain of 0.0017 such that the total variation of lattice parameter relative to the average lattice is now k0.05x0.0017 or something less than ± * For the present case the strain in each phase is roughly 0.002 such that the variation of strain within a phase will not exceed 5 pct. It is stated that the expression derived for strengthening for the hydrostatic straining as observed in this system would substantially overestimate the magnitude due to dislocation flexure. This is contrary to the conclusion reached in the original paper34 for the present range of particle sizes. What is the lowest temperature at which a has been observed to form in this alloy? M. J. Marcinkowski, R. M. Fisher, and A. Szirmae (nutlzors' reply)— -Williams' arguments based on X-ray findings for a chromium-rich precipitate and an iron-rich matrix strained to a common lattice parameter are certainly convincing. This being the case, there are no shear components of strain associated with the precipitate-matrix aggregate to interact with the shear components of the dislocation stress fields, contrary to the opinion expressed by the present authors. On the other hand, the present authors, in spite of this error, did not expect the shear interactions to be significant. The chief objection to Williams' model in the present case is that the various segments of the dislocation line are assumed to pass from one potential valley to the next independently of neighboring segments. This is only true for a highly flexible dislocation line, i.e., one whose radius of curvature is something less than the center to center distance between precipitate particles which amounts to about 90A in the present alloy. In order to maintain this curvature, an externally applied shear stress of at least 230,000 lb per sq in. would be required or about four times the observed stress. It is therefore concluded that the dislocation lines move rather rigidly through the lattice. This being the case, the forces on the dislocation resulting from the hydrostatic interaction between the stress fields of the edge-dislocation components and the precipitate particles should average out to zero; that is particles above the below the slip plane produce forces on the dislocation of opposite sign and therefore will cancel when averaged over the entire length of the dislocation. On the other hand, since the dislocation is not perfectly rigid, Williams' model may lead to some strengthening, but far less than that predicted. A second and equally serious objective to using Williams' strengthening model for the present alloys is that profuse wavy slip due to the motion of screw dislocations played a predominant role not only in the unaged alloys but in the fully aged ones as well. Since the screw dislocation has associated with it only shear components of stress the hydrostatic strengthening model no longer applies. In view of these arguments the present authors must reject Williams' model of strengthening as being pertinent to the present alloy system. The present authors have made no detailed study of the lowest temperature at which a forms in the quenched ferritic alloys. None was ever observed n the alloys aged at 500°C so that forma-tion must occur at temperatures higher than this and was therefore not a factor in the present study.

Jan 1, 1965

By I. R. Kramer

I. R. Kramer (Martin Co.)—In a recent paper Nakada and Chalmers24 reported some observations of effects of surface conditions on the stress-strain curves of aluminum and gold single crystals. It is of interest to compare these observations with the results published previously in this journal and to comment on their general conclusions. In brief, Nakada and Chalmers concluded that the removal of the surface layer of a prestrained specimen lowered the stress-strain curve for aluminum but not that for gold. Further, they concluded that the surface work hardening of aluminum is confined to a depth not more than l0-3 cm. In our results25 published previously, it was pointed out that when prestrained specimens of aluminum and gold were polished to reduce the thickness upon reloading the initial flow stress decreased markedly. Further if a sufficient amount of metal was removed, the yield point failed to appear. With continued application of the load the stress-strain curve became coincident with that of the virgin crystal. We have found this behavior in some 100 determinations to hold consistently for gold, aluminum, and copper in both single and poly-crystalline specimens. The amount of strain required before the curves coincided depends upon the amount of metal removed but it is usually less than 0.01. This type of behavior is the same as that reported for metarecovery by other investigators.29 For aluminum specimens which have been prestrained and then heated to temperatures above 50°C we have consistently found that the stress-strain curve was typical of the orthorecovery28 type. In this case the stress-strain curve always lies below that of the virgin specimen. With respect to Ref. 24 the curves for aluminum are always below that of the virgin curves, while those for gold become coincident. This observation indicates at least for aluminum that the specimens must have been heated to a temperature high enough to cause recovery by an alteration of the internal dislocations. In addition, a recovery would be expected because of the removal of the surface work-hardened layer. Nakada27 had reported that, with his particular apparatus in which a perchloric acid polishing solution was used, the temperature of the specimen increased 65°C. The curves presented in Ref. 24 for gold do not permit one to detect the initial flow stress upon reloading after the surface-removal treatment. In fact, contrary to the method used by Nakada and Chalmers, the change in the stress-strain curve produced by a surface-removal treatment cannot be described in terms of a decrease in stress at strains much higher than that at the initial flow stress because of the coincidence of the curves at the higher strain values. With regard to the depth of the work-hardened surface layer, our data show for aluminum single crystals (7.5 by 0.3 by 0.3 cm) that the initial flow stress remained constant after 12 x 10-3 cm had been removed from the thickness. This depth was independent of the prior strain. For gold crystals this depth is somewhere between 10 x 10-3 and 20 x 10-3 cm. Y. Nakada (author's reply)— Kramer states,28 "for aluminum specimens which have been prestrained and then heated to temperatures above 50°C, we have consistently found that the stress-strain curve was typical of the orthorecovery28 type. In this case the stress-strain curve always lies below that of the virgin specimen." However, Cherian et a1.26 discovered that aluminum polycrystals annealed at 32" and 100°C showed the metarecovery behavior. They showed that the orthorecovery behavior did not appear until the crystals were annealed at 150°C. Kramer suggests28 that the drop in the flow stress of aluminum crystals after the surface removal by electropolishing24 may be due to the recovery caused by the temperature rise which may occur during the electropolishing.27 However, as indirectly stated in Ref. 24, the current density used in these electro -polishing experiments was 0.15 amp per sq cm. According to ref. 27, this current density should cause a temperature rise of only 40°C. This may cause the metarecovery but not the orthorecovery. Furthermore, as stated explicitly in Ref. 24, the surface removal was accomplished by chemical etching as well as by electropolishing. The results were the same for both electropolishing and etching. During the etching, the specimen temperature did not rise above 35°C. Some aluminum crystals were placed in water at 35° C for 30 min. These crystals did not show the decrease in flow stress. Therefore, it is quite clear that the flow-stress drop after the surface removal is not caused by a high-temperature recovery. However, as Kramer points out,28 it is quite possible that the internal dislocation structure may have been altered because of the removal of the highly work-hardened surface layer. However, how much this rearrangement contributes toward the flow-stress decrease is not known at present.

Jan 1, 1965

By R. J. Stokes

S. Floreen (international Nickel Co.)— One fairly simple way to differentiate between em brittle me nt due to surface microcracks or due to a dislocation barrier effect might be to load a brittle rock salt crystal in tension to some stress just below the fracture stress and then immerse the loaded crystal in water. If a surface film is retarding plastic flow then one should observe some plastic deformation of the rock salt as

Jan 1, 1962

By H. J. Beattie

R. L. Stegman and M. R. Achter (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)—In a study of the surface structures developed in the fatigue of nickel at low strains as a function of temperature, we have obtained similar results.3 As our apparatus permits fatigue tests to be conducted in vacuo, there was no masking of the surface at high temperatures by oxidation so that the structures there could be observed directly. The relatively few broad slip bands observed at room temperature gave way at 300°C to a large number of uniformly distributed and narrower slip bands. At 550°C deformation began to concentrate around the grain boundaries and progressively increased up to 800°C. In addition fatigue strength was observed initially to increase with increasing temperature up to about 600°C due to the effectively increased ductility caused by the dispersal of fatigue damage. The fatigue strength then decreased at higher temperatures as grain boundary cracking dominates. Maria Ronay, W. H. Reimann, and W. A. Wood (authors' reply)— The authors are pleased to note that R. L. Stegman and M. R. Achter reach similar conclusions from their study of surface slip on nickel. However, they would emphasize that their own conclusions are based on what is shown by study of specimens that have been sectioned and that this study also shows that surface slip is not necessarily representative of what happens below the surface.

Jan 1, 1965

By Frederick Forscher

Frederick Forscher (Nuclear Materials and Equipment Gorp.)—It is gratifying to see another series of experimental results that essentially reconfirms our reported observations of "Strain-Induced Hydrogen Embrittlement in Zirconium" (F. Forscher: AIME Trans., 1956, vol. 206, p. 536, noted as Ref. 3 of paper). However, several important considerations may have been overlooked, or—at least—have not been specifically pointed out. It is the purpose of this discussion to present some of these considerations. The statement is made that "the equilibrium concentration of hydrogen in solution at 20°C in zirconium is approximately 10 ppm; i.e., no zirconium hydride precipitates are formed at or below this hydrogen content." This is perhaps the case in the unstressed condition. In the presence of triaxial (plastic) strain however, even as little as 1.4 ppm H2 (Forscher's Figs. 6 and 11) will cause porosity near fracture in 20°C tests. The necked-down region that develops during a tensile test provides the triaxiality necessary for these pores to open. Both Beevers' and Forscher's micrographs show that porosity is concentrated in the necked region. So-called "pure zirconium" containing about 10 ppm H2 also shows pronounced porosity near fracture (Beevers' Fig. 3). Since it is generally agreed that such porosity is

Jan 1, 1965

By W. A. Rachinger, C. Graeme-Barber, R. L. Bell, R. C. Gifkins, T. G. Langdon

R. L. Bell. C. Graeme-Barber, and T. G. Langdon (Imperial College. London)— The internal-marker technique developed by Ishida, Mullendore, and Grant has enabled them to make some interesting observations on the role of grain boundary sliding in creep. Certain of their conclusions are supported by our own similar experiments on Magnox AL80 (Mg-0.8 pct Al) specimens containing several markers, full details of which will be published shortly. In particular, we would agree that: 1) Using the internal-marker method, there is little difference between Egb, the contribution made by grain boundary sliding to the total strain, measured at the surface and in the interior of a specimen. 2) The measurement of the change in grain shape during creep leads to an underestimation of the grain strain, and hence an overestimate of Egb.. However, the discrepancies between the values obtained by this method and those obtained using markers are not as great as Tables IV and V of Ishida, Mullendore, and Grant would suggest; see below. The authors' Eq. [I] which is used to compute Egb from the transverse displacement ITt of longitudinal marker lines is not given in the reference quoted,'' where in fact only relations for Egb in terms of the longitudinal displacements of markers were developed. As first pointed out by Gifkins and Gittins,12 a problem arises in the use of longitudinal markers. and we will show that Eq. [1] underestimates Egb in the interior by a factor of 2. In Fig. 12, two grains X and Y have become displaced by the vector AC which lies in the plane of the grain boundary ABCD separating them. A longitudinal marker has been split by this displacement into the two parts LA and CAW. If these were surface grains the transverse displacement, Ut. could be obtained by viewing normal to the "top" surface. If interior, a section through CD parallel to the top surface would show the same result, provided the longitudinal internal markers delineated planes normal to the top surface. (This is an essential feature of the markers not pointed out in the paper.) The important point is that the quantity Ut tan B (=BE=DF) only gives the elongation due to the one component AB of the sliding. The elongation V/tan 8 (=GD) due to the component AD must be added to produce the total elongation resulting from the boundary displacement AC. If the grain boundaries in a poly crystalline specimen are randomly oriented with respect to the stress axis it follows that In the interior of a specimen the two sums depend for any difference simply on the definitions "top'' and "side". On the surface it is possible that the two sums could differ somewhat. In either event it is clear that the authors' Eq. [I] underestimates Egb, and in the interior, and perhaps at the surface also, the appropriate formula is given by The suggested modification probably makes little difference to the comparison between surface and interior values of Egb where both were obtained from marker measurements. For the estimation of the correction becomes extremely important where the boundary contribution is large. In our own work on magnox, for example, we have obtained values of as large as 70 to 80 pct, under conditions of high temperature and low strain rate. The use of planar markers transverse to the stress axis would simplify the comparison between surface and interior behavior, because measurement of the longitudinal offsets Us of these markers could be summed to give the total elongation di-

Jan 1, 1965

By J. Richter, D. Schulze

J. Richter and D. Schulze (Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschafte zu Berlin)—Introduction. In a recent paper R. G. Garlick and H. B. Probst reported on experimental results of investigations of room-temperature slip in zone-melted tungsten single crystals.17 In the paper it was pointed out that slip lines could be detected with an optical microscope only after about 10 pet plastic strain of the crystal. In our investigations we could observe slip lines in tungsten single crystals of defined orientations already with an elongation of 0.02 to 0.03 pet.18"9 Experimental Technique and Results. The tungsten single crystals were produced from 4 to 5 mm sintered rods* as starting material by electron- beam zone melting. With single-zone-pass melting a speed of 0.5 mm per min was used, while three-pass melting could be handled at a speed of 3 mm per min. Crystal axis orientations were located in the shaded area of the stereographic triangle, see Fig. 6. Orientation 1 is located at about 18 deg and orientation 2 at about 5 deg on the great circle from [011] to [ill]. This corresponds approximately to the orientations P and M referred to by Garlick and Probst. Our single crystals had a length of about 70 mm and were profiled solely by electrolytic means, leaving grip ends at both ends of the crystals. Between the latter, a cylindrical crystal of 45 to 50 mm length and about 2.4 mm diam was obtained. The crystals were deformed at room temperature in a commercial tensile-testing machine to obtain a strain of 0.02 to 5 pet. The average strain rate e = eP/t for all tensile tests amounted to approximately 10 -6 to 10-5 per sec, with ep representing plastic strain and t the duration of applied stress. In Fig. 7 a crystal is shown elongated by 0.03 pet. The picture was obtained by means of an optical microscope. Figs. 8 and 9 give electron-microscopic pictures of slip lines of crystals elongated by 0.07 and 1.1 pet, respectively. For crystals with the orientation 1, see Fig. 6, only the two main slip systems (101)[111] and (110)[111] were found. With the crystals of group 2 the two main slip systems are again evident, with

Jan 1, 1965

By R. L. Stegman, M. R. Achter

R. L. Stegman and M. R. Achter (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)—In a study of the surface structures developed in the fatigue of nickel at low strains as a function of temperature, we have obtained similar results.3 As our apparatus permits fatigue tests to be conducted in vacuo, there was no masking of the surface at high temperatures by oxidation so that the structures there could be observed directly. The relatively few broad slip bands observed at room temperature gave way at 300°C to a large number of uniformly distributed and narrower slip bands. At 550°C deformation began to concentrate around the grain boundaries and progressively increased up to 800°C. In addition fatigue strength was observed initially to increase with increasing temperature up to about 600°C due to the effectively increased ductility caused by the dispersal of fatigue damage. The fatigue strength then decreased at higher temperatures as grain boundary cracking dominates. Maria Ronay, W. H. Reimann, and W. A. Wood (authors' reply)— The authors are pleased to note that R. L. Stegman and M. R. Achter reach similar conclusions from their study of surface slip on nickel. However, they would emphasize that their own conclusions are based on what is shown by study of specimens that have been sectioned and that this study also shows that surface slip is not necessarily representative of what happens below the surface.

Jan 1, 1965

By D. S. Hutton, W. C. Leslie

S. Floreen (1nteumtio)lal Nickel Co.)— One fairly simple way to differentiate between embrittlement due to surface microcracks or due to a dislocation barrier effect might be to load a brittle rock salt crystal in tension to some stress just below the fracture stress and then immerse the loaded crystal in water. If a surface film is retarding plastic flow then one should observe some plastic deformation of the rock salt as

Jan 1, 1962

By Ludwig Thomas, Klaus Detert

Klaus Detert and Ludwig Thomas (Westinghouse Electric Gorp.)— The results of C. Panseri and co-workers are quite important. The authors came to the same conclusions about the occurrence of zone formation in A1-Mg alloys as was outlined in previous papers.31'32 Because of the sensitivity of their measurements, it was shown that zone formation could also occur at a much lower range of mag- nesium content than previously observed.31, 33 The idea of strong interaction between magnesium atoms and vacancies, as stressed by the authors, so that all of the quenched-in vacancies are kept in solution at lower temperatures but anneal out completely at 150°C, is in disagreement with our results which clearly indicate that zone formation and annealing out of vacancies occur simultane-

Jan 1, 1964

By M. van Swaay, C. E. Birchenall

A. S. lBrling (Johnson, Matthey & Co. Ltd., Laboratories)— Because of its initial emphasis upon the production of membranes by powder metallurgy and by normal casting and rolling techniques, this paper is of considerable interest to those concerned with the design and application of industrial diffusion units. As the subsequent performances of the three grades of palladium were not compared in detail, it can perhaps be concluded that specific permeabilities were very similar. A short table in which the absolute diffusion rates obtained by the Authors with their three grades of palladium were compared with those of other investigators18-25 would, however, have been of particular value in view of the very variable results obtained with this membrane material. The Authors state early in the paper that the permeability of the thoriated samples decreased in much the same way as that of the nonthoriated samples. Later, they emphasize that sintered palladium without thoria was very susceptible to poisoning and did not respond as well as the other materials to the decontamination treatment. These results, which suggest that sintered membranes are less effective than those produced by normal methods, have considerable industrial implications, and amplified experimental details would be very welcome. The results of the Authors differ in one important respect from those of other investigators. Thus, no "bleeding" was required to maintain a constant rate of diffusion, although Davis, Darling, and De Rosset found this to be necessary. Davisz3 found that "bleeding" was necessary even when the hydrogen had already been purified by diffusion through a palladium tube, and it would be of value to know the purity of the gas stream emerging from the purification train shown on Fig. 1 of the Authors' paper. The Authors show that diffusion rates varied according to the square root of the pressure difference providing that the palladium membrane was not contaminated in any way. This finding is in agreement with the results of those workers2,18,19,23,24 who diffused their hydrogen through the membrane into a partly or completely evacuated system.Those workers who did not find this square-root law dependence did not have a partial vacuum on the downstream-side of the membrane.'' The difference between the two experimental con- ditions appears to be significant, as the absolute diffusion rates per sq cm of diffusion area are lower when the square-root law dependence is not observed. While the effect could be attributable to poisoning of the membrane it is conceivable that a positive pressure on the downstream side of the membrane might influence the mechanism of diffusion. In view of the capricious behavior of palladium, factors of this type, which are likely to influence its industrial significance, should be carefully considered. M. van Swaay and C. E. Birchenall (authors' 9-eply) — Our Eq. 191 may be compared with several others for hydrogen diffusion in palladium: D = 5.95 x exp (-5770/1)' D = 3.55 x 10"3 exp (-5550/)' D = 4.3 x 10"3 exp (-5620/1')' Other values are given in the literature, but in many cases surface poisoning may have affected the results. No analysis was performed on the hydrogen gas stream after purification. It should be noted that the presence of liquid nitrogen traps near the heated membranes may have set up convection currents and provided the equivalent of "bleeding." The question of whether a partial vacuum existed on the downstream side of the membrane is not clear. Does it imply that there is something unique about the permeability measured near one atmosphere pressure? We do not believe that there is. When square root pressure dependence is not observed, diffusion rates are not measured. Is "absolute diffusion rate per sq. cm. of diffusion area" equivalent to permeability? The terminology is new to us. In any case we doubt very much that pressures of the order of several atmospheres can affect the mechanism of diffusion.

Jan 1, 1962

By Elmars Ence, Harold Margolin

A. J. Goldak and J. Gordon Parr (University of Alberta) —While we appreciate the difficulties involved in any investigation of this system, and we wish to congratulate the authors on their comprehensive efforts, there are several aspects of their paper that are not clear to us. 1) If the 6 phase is, in fact, isomorphous with Ti3Sn, it should not be designated Ti,Al. An 4B structure cannot be isomorphous with an ordered structure of the DO type. Anderko et al.' suggested that the structure be called Ti3A1, and we believe this to be a more reasonable designation. The confusion is compounded when the authors designate the phase Ti3Al—yet the composition limits of this phase (according to their diagram) are approximately Ti,A1 and Ti,Al. Further, while Pietro-kowsky is said to have pointed out that the structure of the 6 phase is isomorphous with Ti3Sn, we understand that this was only a suggestion that was not confirmed. Margolin and Ence do not appear to have presented any evidence to support the suggested isomorphism. 2) In referring to the precipitation observed microscopically during the initial breakdown of high A1 a during quenching, the authors state that "such precipitation is not likely to be detected by Debye-Scherrer techniques". We suspect that if the precipitate was visible by optical microscopy, it must have at least one dimension of the order of 1 or greater, and would therefore be readily detected by diffraction techniques. 3) The authors state: "The basis for this suggestion (that 6 forms peritectically P + L—6) is the observation that the ,'3 + 6 and 6 phase fields were

Jan 1, 1962

By W. L. Worrell

R. C. Gifkins (CSIRO)—In this paper evidence is put forward to support the idea of grain boundary shearing in aluminum at 4.2°K and the phenomenon is explained in terms of a low-temperature "equicohesive temperature". It is stated that these findings show that grain boundary shear cannot be ruled out in any situation by temperature arguments alone. We believe, from our own recent study of "apparent grain boundary sliding'' at temperatures below 0.45 Tm, that it can be ruled out on temperature arguments alone.45 Our experiments were made principally with magnesium and a Ms-A1 alloy ("Magnox A12"). Careful examination of offsets of marker lines or steps at grain boundaries produced by deformation at room temperature (-0.3 Tm) showed many of these to result from curvature over narrow zones along the grain boundaries. A significant residuum did, however, appear as a sharp offset or step. It was found that the mean value of this step rose to a small value during the first 0.5 to 1 pct strain and then remained at this level with further strain. Moreover, exactly the same values were obtained (at the same stress) at 75°C instead of 21°C. That is, in this range of temperature the "apparent sliding" was not temperature-sensitive. At 125°C and above there was sliding which increased with strain and which was temperature-dependent. When this temperature-dependent sliding was used to calculate the sliding to be expected at room temperature, this underestimated the "apparent sliding" by a factor of 104. The conclusion drawn is that the "apparent sliding" consists of shear localized in a zone of a width measured perhaps in microns, whereas it seems that true sliding occurs on the boundary surface.46 A model for such localized shear has been developed in general terms, following a similar model of Urie and Wain.47 Other strong evidence for low-temper- ature sliding has been based on the offsets of marker lines consisting of a substructure seen using the electron microscope to resolve these.48 We have repeated this work and found that the effects can be accounted for in terms of cracks in an oxide film which is produced when the substructure is etched up; these cracks form over zones of shear rather than at actual interfaces. However, in aluminum at room temperature (-0.3 Tm) there is no "apparent sliding" which is optically detectable. We suggest that, when the temperature is much lower (and possibly the rate of strain higher, too), as in the experiments of Chin et al., then aluminum behaves like magnesium at room temperature, and a narrow zone of shear develops to accommodate differences in strain across the grain boundary. Such a zone could well give rise to triple-point cracks. It is hoped to investigate these suggestions further. B. Y. Chin, W. F. Hosford, Jr., and W. A. Backofen (authors' reply)—It is interesting to have Dr. Gif-kin's comments, although it is somewhat difficult to reply in detail without the reference containing the work that he describes. Apparently though, he does find a low-temperature temperature-independent sliding that would seem to be related to the observations reported here. Perhaps some of the difficulty has semantic origins, growing out of the distinction between ('true sliding" and "apparent sliding".

Jan 1, 1965

By A. Boltax

H. Herman and M. E. Fine (Northzcesteriz University)—The author is to be complimented on the quality and completeness of his work. Of special interest to us was the exponent of time in the exponential rate equation, n = 0.28 ± 0.03, since it is consistent with results for the early stage of quench-aging in A1-2 at. pct Cu, n = 1/3, first determined in this laboratory."' In that work we attributed the early kinetics to attraction of vacancy - solute atom complexes to the plate-shaped zone due to the strain field about the zone and the lowering in free energy. To our knowledge, Hirano et 1.' were the first to

Jan 1, 1962

By M. F. Comerford

M. F. Comerford (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatovy)- The authors' concern about the effects of preferred orientation is justified and emphasizes a phenomenon that can be a source of serious error, but the cogency of their concluding statement bears close examination. They contend that comparison of intensities from parallel planes of the two phases, as proposed by Averbach, Comerford, and Bever,13 leads to incorrect results. The state- ment is based on the fact that, in Fig. 3, intensity measurements at extreme angles of tilt, (2, lead to different values than those given by the average of all the data. The proposed explanation is that unsuspected superpositions of (110), reflections spuriously enhance the martensite intensity. However, it can be shown on appropriate stereographic projections that no superpositions occur which can affect the reflections in question. Hence, the ex-

Jan 1, 1965

By J. Suiter, H. F. Ryan

H. F. Ryan and J. Suiter (CSIRO)—In this paper the authors have presented "a physical model which has as its central hypothesis the solution strengthening of regions along grain boundaries in the order of tens of angstroms thick", and their calculations have used 40Å as the zhalf-width of this boundary region. Selection of this value by the authors suggests that they were unaware of a number of recent field-ion microscope observations of grain boundary structures (e.g., Refs. 29 and 30). The accompanying figure, Fig. 9, shows a portion of an ion micrograph of a tungsten specimen containing a grain boundary, and the regular arrangement of atoms in various crystal planes in each grain can be seen, except in the boundary zone which is not more than two atom diameters in width. Since it is expected that solute atoms will segregate only to the region where the lattice is disturbed, it would seem that a value of 4Å for the half-width of the boundary region would be more appropriate than the value of 40Å assumed by the authors. If the former value is used in Eq. [8] of their paper to obtain curves showing solute concentration in the grain boundary as a function of temperature, the resulting curves differ significantly from those obtained by the authors. Although there are only relatively slight changes in the regions corresponding to higher temperatures (i.e., grain boundary concentrations of approximately 1 at. pet), at lower temperatures the curves are no longer realistic. For example, the curve corresponding to u = 7000 cal per mole gives a solute grain boundary concentration in excess of 100 pet at a temperature of approximately 360°K, and "flattens out" at a grain boundary concentration of about 300 pet! Similar results are obtained with each of the other curves. Ion microscopy of dilute solid-solution alloys has shown that solute atoms give rise to image points which in most cases are of higher intensity than those of the solvent atoms.31 If the same behavior occurs when the solute atoms are present in much lower concentrations then ion microscopy should provide a sensitive tool for studying the segregation of impurities to the grain boundary regions. Although many grain boundaries in tungsten have been examined after different thermal and mechanical treatments, there has not been, as yet, any systematic study of such segregation. In general the micrographs show no clear indications of marked grain boundary segregation, but occasionally areas are found where the grain boundary contains an appreciable number of image points of high intensity in a very narrow zone, see Fig. 9. If it is assumed that these correspond to impurity atoms then it is possible to estimate the impurity concentration both in the grain boundary and within the body of the grains. Application of this method (to a larger area

Jan 1, 1965

By G. Ansell, J. Weertman

G. Ansell and J. Weertman (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Northwestern University, respectively) —The great increase in creep strength that you found in your indium-glass composites is quite striking. You ruled out a decrease in the dislocation source density as an explanation of the reduced creep rates. Could you tell in greater detail why you feel this is an inadequate explanation of the phenomenon. It appears to us that it is a reasonable one. Consider the spacing between the glass spheres in your composites. It is of the order of 10-3 cm. The spacing between dislocations in a (single-phase) annealed metal with a dislocation density of the order of 106 to 107 cm per cm3 also is of the order of 10-3 cm. Therefore it is not reasonable to expect that the arrangement of the dislocation lines is the same in the composite material as it is in pure indium. If the dislocation arrangements are different the density of the dislocation sources likewise will be different. Another way of saying the same thing is the following. The presence of the glass spheres reduces one of the dimensions of the metal phase to 10-3 cm. Thus the metal phase, in effect, is equivalent to a metal whisker or a thin metal film. These are strong because they have so few dislocation sources within them. T. D. Gulden and J. C. Shyne (authors' reply)—It is to be expected that the arrangement of dislocations in the indium-glass composites would be quite different than that observed in annealed pure metals. The dislocations probably exist primarily as segments connecting the dispersed particles. These segments and discontinuities at the very large area of particle-metal interface could act as dislocation sources. For this reason it was considered unlikely that the very high observed creep strengths were due to a low density of dislocation sources. A more likely explanation is that the distance a dislocation can glide is limited by the interparticle spacing. The particles averaged about twenty in diam and were less than 10 µ apart in the 40 pet composite. It seems reasonable to assume that a dislocation loop in a volume of metal surrounded by these relatively large particles would not bow out around them but would be restricted to the region between particles. A general expression for creep rate is given by the product of the dislocation source density, the average rate at which loops are generated from a source, and the average area swept out by a loop times the Burgers vector magnitude. Assuming that the area swept out is limited by the interparticle spacing and the rate of generation of loops is controlled by the rate of climb of loops over second-phase particles, as suggested by Ansel and Weert-men,9 a calculation of the dislocation source density may be made from the experimentally observed creep rates. The result comes out 10" to 10" per cm3 which seems reasonable in view of the assumptions involved. Thus it is concluded that the anomalously low creep rates that were observed were due not to a low dislocation source density but rather to a limitation on the area swept out by each dislocation loop.

Jan 1, 1964

By P. Shahinian, M. R. Achter

P. Shahinian and M. R. Achter (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)—We should like to point out another instance where concentration of impurities in grain boundaries led to an embrittlement. In this case an impure nickel (99.8 pct) developed many more in-tergranular cracks during creep in a nitrogen atmosphere than in vacuum.5 In comparison high-purity nickel (99.99 pct) exhibited a much smaller atmosphere effect. We concluded that the interartion of the nitrogen with nitride-forming impurities concentrated at grain boundaries promoted inter-granular cracking.

Jan 1, 1965

By Arthur G. Metcalfe

Arthur G. Metcalfe (SOLAR)—Three explanations to account for mechanical nucleation effects are considered in the paper, viz., theories based on fragmentation, agglomeration, and pressure-wave mechanisms. The authors show that none of these mechanisms will explain the results observed with tin and Sn-Pb alloys. A fourth mechanism of nucleation enhancement was developed during work at Armour Research Foundation on casting of beryllium and, although presented briefly on various occasions, the theory has never been discussed adequately. It is believed that this theory will explain many of the observations. Classical homogeneous nucleation theories assume that embryo nuclei are formed in the melt as a result of compositional and/or thermal fluctuations. Stable nuclei are formed when a critical size is reached such that the decrease in free energy for conversion of this volume of melt to solid offsets the increase of surface, energy. The assumption is made that the average properties of liquid and solid metal can be used. In practice this assumption is invalid and indeed is contrary to the postulation of thermal and compositional fluctuations in the melt. Actually the conditions favoring embryo formation bring the seeds of its own destruction—the thermal and compositional fluctuations leave the embryo surrounded by atoms of higher thermal energies and/or by solute atoms that depress the melting point. Any mechanical method of dispersing this destructive

Jan 1, 1964