Diffraction-amalgamated grain boundary tracking for mapping 3D crystallographic orientation and strain fields during plastic deformation

By amalgamating the X-ray diffraction technique with the grain boundary tracking technique, a novel method, diffraction-amalgamated grain boundary tracking (DAGT), has been developed. DAGT is a non-destructive in-situ analysis technique for characterising bulk materials, which can be applied up to near the point of fracture. It provides information about local crystal orientations and detailed grain morphologies in three dimensions, together with high-density strain mapping inside grains. As it obtains the grain morphologies by utilising X-ray imaging instead of X-ray diffraction, which latter is typically vulnerable to plastic deformation, DAGT is a fairly robust technique for analysing plastically deforming materials. Texture evolution and localised deformation behaviours have here been successfully characterised in Al–Cu alloys, during tensile deformation of 27% in applied strain. The characteristic rotation behaviours of grains were identified, and attributed to the effects of interaction with adjacent grains on the basis of the 3D local orientation and plastic strain distributions. It has also been revealed that 3D strain distribution in grains is highly heterogeneous, which is not explained by known mechanisms such as simple incompatibility with adjacent grains or strain percolation through soft grains. It has been clarified that groups consisting of a few adjacent grains may deform coordinately, especially in shear and lateral deformation, and the characteristic deformation pattern is thereby formed on a mesoscopic scale.