Deformation mechanism of fine-grained superplasticity in metallic materials expected from the phenomenological constitutive equation

The superplastic behavior of fine-grained metals is well described by the deformation model in which grain boundary sliding (GBS) is accommodated by slip. This slip accommodation process involves the sequential steps of glide and climb, with climb assumed to be the rate-controlling process. The climb distance during GBS is often considered to be on the order of grain size in the conventional theoretical models. However, these models have not been able to predict quantitatively the strain rates actually observed in fine-grained superplastic materials. Therefore, the deformation model was reviewed by comparing the theoretical and phenomenological equations in order to accurately understand the mechanism of the accommodation process. The analyses revealed that the climb process is governed by the effective diffusivity. The climb distance through the grain boundary is of the order of the grain size, and that through the lattice close to the dislocation core size was quantitatively in agreement with the phenomenological relation.