Distribution of grain boundaries in aluminum as a function of five macroscopic parameters Original Research Article

The grain boundary character distribution in commercially pure Al has been measured as a function of lattice misorientation and boundary plane orientation. The results demonstrate a tendency to terminate grain boundaries on low index planes with relatively low surface energies and large interplanar spacings. The most frequently observed grain boundary plane orientation is (1 1 1). However, there are also instances where boundaries terminated by higher index planes have significant populations. For example, certain twist configurations on {1 1 w} planes, which correspond to symmetric [1 1 0] tilt boundaries, also have relatively high populations. The population of symmetric [1 1 0] tilt boundaries exhibits an inverse relationship with previously measured energies.