Formation of I1 stacking fault by deformation defect evolution from grain boundaries in Mg

Abstract

I1 stacking faults (SFs) in Mg alloys are regarded as the nucleation sites of 〈c+a〉 dislocations that are critical for these alloys to achieve high ductility. Previously it was proposed that the formation of I1 SFs requires the accumulations of a large number of vacancies, which are difficult to achieve at low temperatures. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) and molecular statics (MS) simulations based on empirical interatomic potentials were applied to investigate the deformation defect evolutions from the symmetric tilt grain boundaries (GBs) in Mg and Mg-Y alloys under external loading along 〈c〉-axis. The results show the planar faults (PFs) on Pyramidal I planes first appear due to the nucleation and glide of 〈12c+p〉 partial dislocations from GBs, where 〈p〉=13〈101¯0〉. These partial dislocations with pyramidal PFs interact with other defects, including pyramidal PFs themselves, GBs, and 〈p〉 partial dislocations, generating a large amount of I1 SFs. Detailed analyses show the nucleation and growth of I1 SFs are achieved by atomic shuffle events and deformation defect reactions without the requirements of vacancy diffusion. Our simulations also suggest the Y clusters at GBs can reduce the critical stress for the formation of pyramidal PFs and I1 SFs, which provide a possible reason for the experimental observations that Y promotes the 〈c+a〉 dislocation activities.

Keywords

• Magnesium alloys
• I1 stacking faults
• 〈c+a〉 dislocations
• Grain boundaries
• Defect nucleation and evolution
• Molecular dynamics simulations