Strengths of grain boundaries in pure metals

Abstract

The relative surface energies for brittle fracture along grain boundaries or along crystal planes, at low temperatures, are estimated and used in a criterion for the relative strengths of boundaries and cleavages. It is concluded that the boundary is weaker than the crystal in a wide range of metals; that it becomes weaker as the ratio of shear modulus to bulk modulus increases; and that brittle pure metals, such as iridium and molybdenum, fracture preferentially on grain boundaries. The critical modulus ratio is in all cases lower than that for the ductile–brittle cleavage transition.

MST/1154