Assessment of residual stress fields at deformation twin tips and the surrounding environments

Stress fields close to twin tips and the associated local neighbourhoods of a hexagonal close-packed (HCP) polycrystal were studied in detail. For this purpose, a coarse grain textured Zircaloy-2 sample was firstly strained uniaxially in a macroscopic direction that favours tensile twin formation. The sample was then unloaded and residual elastic strains and lattice rotations measured using the high-resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HR-EBSD) technique. Measured elastic strain maps of various clusters of grains including parent and twin pairs were then analysed. Stress, dislocation density, and their associated concentrations close to twin tips, within twins, in the immediate neighbouring grain, at the intersection of two twins, and within parent grains were investigated. It is shown that the stress field at the twin tips varies as a function of local neighbourhood. High stress, lattice rotation, and dislocation density concentrations were generally observed close to twin tips both within twins and within the immediate neighbouring grains. It is shown that dislocation density concentration is maximum at the intersection of two twins which can potentially provide susceptible site for crack nucleation.