Abstract
The elastic interaction energy ΔE between a dislocation and a grain boundary is calculated for different geometrical configurations and for different anisotropic b.c.c. metals. For a given grain boundary (R, θ) and for a given Burgers vector of the dislocation, the interaction energy may be attractive or repulsive according to the dislocation line and it always occurs in a set of directions for which ΔE = 0. By using the integral formalism, the general condition for which ΔE = 0 is derived and verified for some particular cases. A good correlation is found between the order of magnitude of the interaction energy ΔE and the order of magnitude of the anisotropy factor H. Finally, the distances up to which the image forces F 1 = ΔE/d (d is the distance between the dislocation and the grain boundary) may overcome the Peierls forces in different metals are calculated for two temperatures, 100 and 300 K, and practical consequences of the ‘dislocation—grain boundary’ interaction are pointed out.
