Recent research on the dynamics of planar grain boundaries was reviewed. Novel measuring techniques developed for in situ observation and recording of magnetically and stress driven grain boundary migration were presented. The results of migration measurements obtained on bismuth, zinc and aluminium bicrystals were addressed. The experiments revealed that the inclination of a <112> tilt boundary in Bi had a very strong influence on its mobility. The migration of planar <10•0> tilt grain boundaries with different misorientation angles was measured in situ in bicrystals of high purity zinc. The results proved that there was a pronounced misorientation dependence of grain boundary mobility in the investigated angular range. The shear stress induced migration of planar symmetrical <100> tilt boundaries in aluminium bicrystals was observed to be accompanied by a lateral translation of the adjacent grains. The coupling between boundary motion and shearing was not confined to low angle and some low-Σ high-angle boundaries, but occurred also for non-coincidence high-angle <100> tilt boundaries. It was found that also for stress induced grain boundary motion there was a misorientation dependence of the migration activation parameters. Lower values of the activation enthalpy and the pre-exponential mobility factor could be associated with boundaries with tilt angles close to low-Σ coincidence site lattice orientation relationships.

Migration of Specific Planar Grain Boundaries in Bicrystals: Application of Magnetic Fields and Mechanical Stresses. D.A.Molodov, T.Gorkaya, C.Günster, G.Gottstein: Frontiers of Materials Science in China, 2010, 4[3], 291-305