Internal stress superplasticity in anisotropic polycrystalline materials

A theoretical model of internal stress superplasticity is developed in a single-phase polycrystalline material with an anisotropic thermal expansion. Quasi-steady state creep equation during a thermal cycle is derived quantitatively based on continuum micromechanics. The model assumes that the generated mismatch strain is accommodated simultaneously by the plastic flow of the material. The linear creep deformation. which corresponds to internal stress superplasticity, is obtained at low applied stress region. and the creep rate depends on the crystallographic texture of the material. The validity of the model is experimentally verified using polycrystalline zinc which is a typical metal having large anisotropy in thermal expansion. The calculated strain rates using the texture information and the isothermal creep equation agree quantitatively well with the experimental results. The apparent activation energy of thermal cycling creep reveals 1/n (n: stress exponent of isothermal creep) of that of isothermal creep, which is one of the characteristics of internal stress superplasticity. Except for the factors attributable to the material geometry, the thermal cycling creep equation in the polycrystalline material is identical to that in a metal matrix composite. (C) 2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.