Formation of Persistent Slip Band in Fatigued Copper Single Crystals
Localised plastic deformation in Persistent Slip Bands(PSBs) is a characteristic feature of fatigue in many materials. The dislocation structure in the PSBs contains regularly spaced dislocation dipole walls occupying a volume fraction of around 10%. The remainder of the specimen, the inactive "matrix", contains dislocation veins at a volume fraction of 50% or more. Walls and veins are both separated by regions in which the dislocation density is lower by some orders of magnitude. Since the PSBs offer favorable sites for the initiation of fatigue cracks, the formation of the PSB wall structure is of great interest. Winter has proposed that PSBs form as the result of a transformation of the matrix structure to a regular wall structure, and that the instability occurs among the broad dipoles near the center of a vein rather than in the hard shell surounding the vein as argued by Kulmann-Wilsdorf.