Texture induced plastic anisotropy of NiAl polycrystals

Textured stoichiometric NiAl polycrystals have been deformed in compression at room temperature under 0.4 GPa confining pressure at a strain rate of about 10−4 s−1. The strength of the samples depends on the preferred orientation with respect to the compression axis, with 〈100〉 being much harder than those with 〈110〉 and 〈111〉. Similarly, the frequency of intercrystalline microcracking shows the same tendency. The orientation distribution of the microcracks indicates that they mainly result from internal stresses released after unloading. The plastic anisotropy at elevated strains correlates with the Taylor energy calculated. The deviation from axially symmetric deformation is due to the tendency of minimizing the Taylor energy.