Analysis of slip transfer behavior of tantalum during quasi in-situ compression

This paper reports a quasi in-situ study on the plastic deformation behavior of high purity tantalum, particularly the slip activation and slip transfer, using the electron backscatter diffraction method. We found that the rotation degree of grains is in the range of 0–15°; the rotation axes of slip-activated grains are mainly concentrated in the three corners, while the axes of slip-transfer ones are concentrated near {111} corner in the stereographic triangle. Microstructural parameters including grain size and grain aspect ratio were found to have no apparent relationships with the slip activation or slip transfer process. Most m' factors for the grains underwent slip-transfer are larger than 0.27, and most slip systems involved in the slip-transfer observations are associated with relatively high Schmid factors (SFs), indicating that slip would more easily transfer through the boundaries with large m' factors. In addition, according to the distribution of geometrical necessary dislocation density and the SF of slipping activated grains, we found the slip transfer process is affected by a combination of factors, including the SF, m' factor, and the strain concentration in local regions.