The Effects of Strain Annealing on Grain Boundary Distribution and Hardening in Superpure Nickel

Electron backscatter diffraction is applied to the study of texture and mesotexture in superpure nickel. Low level strain annealing is shown to influence the grain boundary population such that greater proportions of special boundaries exist. It is found that variations in the texture of a specimen are not reflected by characteristic changes in the grain boundary population, indicating that texture analysis cannot be applied to the prediction of special boundary densities. Mechanisms active during the evolution of special boundaries are discussed and compared to those involved under similar conditions in commercially pure nickel. It is shown that alnnealing twin formation need not be prevalent for a high level of special boundaries to form. Differences in the hardness of various boundary types are identified, such that low angle boundaries and ∑3 boundaries close to exact misorientation can be categorized separately to other boundaries, in that they show minimal hardening.