Atomistic simulations have shown that the grain boundary (GB) structure affects a number of physical, mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties, which can have a profound effect on macroscopic properties of polycrystalline materials. The research objective herein is to use atomistic simulations to explore the role that GB structure and the adjacent crystallographic orientations have on the directional asymmetry of an intergranular crack (i.e. cleavage behavior is favored along one direction, while ductile behavior along the other direction of the interface) for aluminum grain boundaries. Simulation results from seven 〈110〉 symmetric tilt grain boundaries (STGBs) show that the GB structure and the associated free volume directly influence the stress–strain response, crack growth rate, and crack tip plasticity mechanisms for middle-tension (M(T)) crack propagation specimens. In particular, the structural units present within the GB promote whether a dislocation or twinning-based mechanism operates at the crack tip during intergranular fracture along certain GBs (e.g., the ‘E’ structural unit promotes twinning at the crack tip in Al). Furthermore, the crystallography of the adjacent grains, and therefore the available slip planes, can significantly affect the crack growth rates in both directions of the crack – this creates a strong directional asymmetry in the crack growth rate in the Σ11 (113) and the Σ27 (552) STGBs. Upon comparing these results with the theoretical Rice criterion, it was found that certain GBs in this study (Σ9 (221), Σ11 (332) and Σ33 (441)) show an absence of directional asymmetry in the observed crack growth behavior, in conflict with the Rice criterion. The significance of the present research is that it provides a physical basis for the role of GB character and crystallographic orientation on intergranular crack tip deformation behavior.

The role that grain boundary (GB) structure plays on the directional asymmetry of an intergranular crack (i.e. cleavage behaviour is favoured along one direction, while ductile behaviour along the other direction of the interface) was investigated using atomistic simulations for aluminium 〈1 1 0〉 symmetric tilt GBs. Middle-tension (M(T)) and Mode-I crack propagation specimens were used to evaluate the predictive capability of the Rice criterion. The stress–strain response of the GBs for the M(T) specimens highlighted the importance of the GB structure. The observed crack tip behaviour for certain GBs (Σ9 (2 2 1), Σ11 (3 3 2) and Σ33 (4 4 1)) with the M(T) specimen displayed an absence of directional asymmetry which is in disagreement with the Rice criterion. Moreover, in these GBs with the M(T) specimen, the dislocation emission from a GB source at a finite distance ahead of the crack tip was observed rather than from the crack tip, as suggested by the Rice criterion. In an attempt to understand discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and atomistic observations, the effect of boundary conditions (M(T), Mode-I and the edge crack) on the crack tip events was examined and it was concluded that the incipient plastic events observed were strongly influenced by the boundary conditions (i.e. activation of dislocation sources along the GB, in contrast to dislocation nucleation directly from the crack tip). In summary, these findings provide new insights into crack growth behaviour along GB interfaces and provide a physical basis for examining the role of the GB character on incipient event ahead of a crack tip and interface properties, as an input to higher scale models.

The objective of this research is to explore the formation/binding energetics and length scales associated with the interaction between He [subscript n] V clusters and grain boundaries in bcc α-Fe. In this work, we calculated formation/binding energies for 1–8 He atoms in a monovacancy at all potential grain boundary (GB) sites within 15 Å of the ten grain boundaries selected (122106 simulations total). The present results provide detailed information about the interaction energies and length scales of 1–8 He atoms with grain boundaries for the structures examined. A number of interesting new findings emerge from the present study. First, the Σ3(112) “twin” GB has significantly lower binding energies for all He [subscript n] V clusters than all other boundaries in this study. For all grain boundary sites, the effect of the local environment surrounding each site on the He [subscript n] V formation and binding energies decreases with an increasing number of He atoms in the He [subscript n] V cluster. Based on the calculated dataset, we formulated a model to capture the evolution of the formation and binding energy of He [subscript n] V clusters as a function of distance from the GB center, utilizing only constants related to the maximum binding energy and the length scale.