Role of local stresses on co-zone twin-twin junction formation in HCP magnesium

Abstract Twin-twin interactions control the formation of twin-twin junctions (TTJ) in hexagonal metals when multiple twin variants are activated in a grain. In this work, we employ a combination of two computational techniques, a 3D full-field crystal plasticity model (CP) and large-scale molecular dynamics (MD), to study the TTJ formation associated with two non-parallel { 10 1 ¯ 2 } twins in Mg. The local intra-granular stresses generated by discrete twins are computed using a spatially resolved CP model. Atomic-scale knowledge regarding formation processes and local stresses is revealed by MD. The combined analyses suggest that the twin junction forms by the migration of the boundaries of both, the impinging and impinged twin, taking place in the immediate vicinity of the contact point. It is further shown that local stress fields that are generated after initial contact promote thickening of the impinging twin, and may facilitate nucleation of a new twin on the opposite boundary of the recipient twin. Calculations of the strain energies suggest that formation of the co-zone twin-twin junction is energetically favorable but detwinning of the TTJ upon load reversal or under cyclic loading is not.