Crystallographic and macroscopic orientation of planar dislocation boundaries—correlation with grain orientation

Abstract A novel geometric analysis method for determination of the three-dimensional orientation of extended planar dislocation boundaries in polycrystals based on TEM measurements is presented. The analysis is applied to data for tensile deformed aluminium, revealing that the boundaries have a strong preference for certain crystallographic planes, depending on the crystallographic orientation of the grain. The crystallographic boundary planes are distributed around, but do not coincide with, the most stressed macroscopic planes inclined 45° to the tensile axis. The strong correlation between the crystallographic boundary planes and the grain orientation shows that the boundary orientation is closely linked to the active slip systems. The observed correlation can be explained by a Schmid factor analysis assuming activity on the five most stressed slip systems.