A model was suggested that described experimentally observed changes in the activation energy for grain-boundary diffusion in fine-grained polycrystalline metals during

annealing after deformation. The model was based upon the theory of non-equilibrium grain boundaries. It was shown here that changes in the characteristics of grain-boundary diffusion in fine-grained materials were related to the escape, from grain boundaries, of defects that were introduced into the boundaries during preliminary deformation.

Micromechanisms of Grain-Boundary Recovery upon Annealing after Deformation - I. Recovery of Diffusional Properties of Grain Boundaries. V.N.Chuvildeev, O.E.Pirozhnikova, A.V.Petryaev: Physics of Metals and Metallography, 2001, 92[6], 540-5