Grain boundary

1 High and low angle boundaries

It is convenient to separate grain boundaries by the extent
of the mis-orientation between the two grains. Low angle
grain boundaries (LAGBs) are those with a misorientation less than about 15 degrees. Generally speaking they
are composed of an array of dislocations and their properties and structure are a function of the misorientation.
In contrast the properties of high angle grain boundaries
(HAGBs) whose misorientation is greater than about 11
degrees (the transition angle varies from 1015 degrees
depending on the material) are normally found to be independent of the misorientation. However, there are 'special boundaries at particular orientations whose interMicrograph of a polycrystalline metal; grain boundaries evi- facial energies are notably lower than those of general
denced by acid etching.
HAGBs.

Dierently oriented crystallites in a polycrystalline material

A grain boundary is the interface between two grains,

or crystallites, in a polycrystalline material. Grain boundaries are defects in the crystal structure, and tend to decrease the electrical and thermal conductivity of the material. Most grain boundaries are preferred sites for the
onset of corrosion and for the precipitation of new phases
from the solid. They are also important to many of the
mechanisms of creep. On the other hand, grain boundaries disrupt the motion of dislocations through a material, so reducing crystallite size is a common way to improve strength, as described by the HallPetch relationship.

Schematic representations of a tilt boundary (top) and a twist

boundary between two idealised grains.

The most simple boundary is that of a tilt boundary where

the rotation axis is parallel to the boundary plane. This
boundary can be conceived as forming from a single, contiguous crystallite or grain which is gradually bent by
1

2
some external force. The energy associated with the elastic bending of the lattice can be reduced by inserting a
dislocation, which is essentially a half-plane of atoms that
act like a wedge, that creates a permanent misorientation
between the two sides. As the grain is bent further, more
and more dislocations must be introduced to accommodate the deformation resulting in a growing wall of dislocations a low-angle boundary. The grain can now
be considered to have split into two sub-grains of related
crystallography but notably dierent orientations.

2 DESCRIBING A BOUNDARY
incident sites. Examples include coherent twin boundaries (3) and high-mobility boundaries in FCC materials
(7). Deviations from the ideal CSL orientation may be
accommodated by local atomic relaxation or the inclusion
of dislocations into the boundary.

2 Describing a boundary

A boundary can be described by the orientation of the

boundary to the two grains and the 3-D rotation required
to bring the grains into coincidence. Thus a boundary
has 5 macroscopic degrees of freedom. However, it is
common to describe a boundary only as the orientation
relationship of the neighbouring grains. Generally, the
convenience of ignoring the boundary plane orientation,
which is very dicult to determine, outweighs the reduced information. The relative orientation of the two
These concepts of tilt and twist boundaries represent grains is described using the rotation matrix:
somewhat idealized cases. The majority of boundaries
are of a mixed type, containing dislocations of dierent
types and Burgers vectors, in order to create the best t
between the neighboring grains.
An alternative is a twist boundary where the misorientation occurs around an axis that is perpendicular to
the boundary plane. This type of boundary incorporates
two sets of screw dislocations. If the Burgers vectors of
the dislocations are orthogonal, then the dislocations do
not strongly interact and form a square network. In other
cases, the dislocations may interact to form a more complex hexagonal structure.

If the dislocations in the boundary remain isolated and

distinct, the boundary can be considered to be low-angle.
If deformation continues, the density of dislocations will
increase and so reduce the spacing between neighboring
dislocations. Eventually, the cores of the dislocations will
begin to overlap and the ordered nature of the boundary
will begin to break down. At this point the boundary can
be considered to be high-angle and the original grain to
have separated into two entirely separate grains.
In comparison to LAGBs, high-angle boundaries are considerably more disordered, with large areas of poor t and
a comparatively open structure. Indeed, they were originally thought to be some form of amorphous or even liquid layer between the grains. However, this model could
not explain the observed strength of grain boundaries and,
after the invention of electron microscopy, direct evidence of the grain structure meant the hypothesis had to
be discarded. It is now accepted that a boundary consists
of structural units which depend on both the misorientation of the two grains and the plane of the interface. The
types of structural unit that exist can be related to the
concept of the coincidence site lattice, in which repeated
units are formed from points where the two misoriented
lattices happen to coincide.
In coincident site lattice (CSL) theory, the degree of t
() between the structures of the two grains is described
by the reciprocal of the ratio of coincidence sites to the
total number of sites. Thus a boundary with high might
be expected to have a higher energy than one with low
. Low-angle boundaries, where the distortion is entirely
accommodated by dislocations, are 1. Some other low boundaries have special properties, especially when the
boundary plane is one that contains a high density of co-

The characteristic distribution of boundary misorientations in a

completely randomly oriented set of grains for cubic symmetry
materials.

a11
R = a21
a31

a12
a22
a32

a13
a23
a33

Using this system the rotation angle is:

2 cos + 1 = a11 + a22 + a33

while the direction [uvw] of the rotation axis is:
[(a32 a23 ), (a13 a31 ), (a21 a12 )]
The nature of the crystallography involved limits the misorientation of the boundary. A completely random polycrystal, with no texture, thus has a characteristic distribution of boundary misorientations (see gure). However,
such cases are rare and most materials will deviate from
this ideal to a greater or lesser degree.

Boundary energy

grain boundary (LAGB) movement strongly inuences

recovery and the nucleation of recrystallization.
A boundary moves due to a pressure acting on it. It is generally assumed that the velocity is directly proportional to
the pressure with the constant of proportionality being the
mobility of the boundary. The mobility is strongly temperature dependent and often follows an Arrhenius type
relationship:
(
)
Q
M = M0 exp
RT

The energy of a tilt boundary and the energy per dislocation as

the misorientation of the boundary increases.

The apparent activation energy (Q) may be related to the

thermally activated atomistic processes that occur during
boundary movement. However, there are several proposed mechanisms where the mobility will depend on
the driving pressure and the assumed proportionality may
break down.

It is generally accepted that the mobility of low-angle

The energy of a low-angle boundary is dependent on the boundaries is much lower than that of high-angle bounddegree of misorientation between the neighbouring grains aries. The following observations appear to hold true over
up to the transition to high-angle status. In the case of a range of conditions:
simple tilt boundaries the energy of a boundary made up
The mobility of low-angle boundaries is proporof dislocations with Burgers vector b and spacing h is pretional to the pressure acting on it.
dicted by the Read-Shockley equation:
The rate controlling process is that of bulk diusion
s = 0 (A ln )
where = b/h, 0 = Gb/4 (1 ), A = 1 + ln(b/2 r0 ),
G is the shear modulus, is poissons ratio, and r0 is the
radius of the dislocation core. It can be seen that as the
energy of the boundary increases the energy per dislocation decreases. Thus there is a driving force to produce
fewer, more misoriented boundaries (i.e., grain growth).
The situation in high-angle boundaries is more complex.
Although theory predicts that the energy will be a minimum for ideal CSL congurations, with deviations requiring dislocations and other energetic features, empirical measurements suggest the relationship is more complicated. Some predicted troughs in energy are found as
expected while others missing or substantially reduced.
Surveys of the available experimental data have indicated
that simple relationships such as low are misleading:
It is concluded that no general and useful
criterion for low energy can be enshrined in
a simple geometric framework. Any understanding of the variations of interfacial energy
must take account of the atomic structure and
the details of the bonding at the interface.[1]

Boundary migration

The boundary mobility increases with misorientation.

Since low-angle boundaries are composed of arrays of
dislocations and their movement may be related to dislocation theory. The most likely mechanism, given the
experimental data, is that of dislocation climb, rate limited by the diusion of solute in the bulk.[2]
The movement of high-angle boundaries occurs by the
transfer of atoms between the neighbouring grains. The
ease with which this can occur will depend on the structure of the boundary, itself dependent on the crystallography of the grains involved, impurity atoms and the temperature. It is possible that some form of diusionless
mechanism (akin to diusionless phase transformations
such as martensite) may operate in certain conditions.
Some defects in the boundary, such as steps and ledges,
may also oer alternative mechanisms for atomic transfer.
Since a high-angle boundary is imperfectly packed compared to the normal lattice it has some amount of free
space or free volume where solute atoms may possess a
lower energy. As a result a boundary may be associated
with a solute atmosphere that will retard its movement.
Only at higher velocities will the boundary be able to
break free of its atmosphere and resume normal motion.

Both low- and high-angle boundaries are retarded by the

The movement of grain boundaries (HAGB) has impli- presence of particles via the so-called Zener pinning efcations for recrystallization and grain growth while sub- fect. This eect is often exploited in commercial alloys

7 FURTHER READING

Annealing

Grain growth can be inhibited by second phase particles via

Zener pinning.

to minimise or prevent recrystallization or grain growth

during heat-treatment.

See also
Crystal
Crystallite
Crystallography
Segregation in materials

References

[1] Stutton.
[2] Humphreys.

6.1

Bibliography

FJ Humphreys, M Hatherly (2004). Recrystallisation and related anealing phenomena. Elsevier.

AP Sutton, RW Ballu (1987). Overview no.
61: On geometric criteria for low interfacial energy. Acta Metallurgica 35 (9): 21772201.
doi:10.1016/0001-6160(87)90067-8.

Further reading
RD Doherty; DA Hughes; FJ Humphreys; JJ
Jonas; D Juul Jenson; et al. (1997). Current
Issues In Recrystallisation: A Review. Materials Science and Engineering A 238 (2): 219274.
doi:10.1016/S0921-5093(97)00424-3.
G Gottstein, LS Shvindlerman (2009). Grain
Boundary Migration in Metals: Thermodynamics,
Kinetics, Applications, 2nd Edition. CRC Press.

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