Crack Blunting through Lattice Dislocation Slip in Nanocrystalline and Ultrafine-Grained Materials

The grain size effect on blunting of cracks in nanocrystalline and ultrafine-grained materials (UFG) is theoretically described. Within our description, lattice dislocations emitted from cracks are stopped at grain boundaries. The stress fields of these dislocations suppress further dislocation emission from cracks in nanocrystalline and UFG materials, and the suppression depends on grain size. The dependences of the number of dislocations emitted by a crack on grain size (ranging from 10 to 300 nm) in Cu and 3C-SiC (the cubic phase of silicon carbide) are calculated which characterize the grain size effect on crack blunting that crucially influences ductility of these materials.