Twin boundary interactions with grain boundaries investigated in pure rhenium

Abstract The mechanical behavior of pure rhenium was investigated using uniaxial compression tests, transmission electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction characterization. The plasticity was characterized by a large amount of twin formation and propagation, including twin transmission across grain boundaries. In-depth analysis of the interactions of { 1 1 2 ¯ 1 } 〈 1 ¯ 1 ¯ 2 6 〉 twins with grain boundaries found that grain boundaries with misorientation angles below ∼25° allowed twin transmission, while grain boundaries with higher angles did not. Similar to dislocation interactions with grain boundaries, twin transmission was largely dictated by the minimization of the angle between the shear vectors of the incoming and outgoing twins.