Effect of dislocation slip and deformation twinning on the high-pressure phase transformation in Zirconium

Zirconium transforms from the α→ω phase under high hydrostatic pressures. The critical transformation pressure is expected to be affected by internal stresses associated with defects. This study focuses on the effects of dislocations and twins and their associated stress fields on the transformation. Samples are pre-loaded to seed dislocations or twins. In-situ high-hydrostatic-pressure X-ray synchrotron experiments are performed revealing that microstructures with pre-existing prismatic 〈a〉 dislocations and {101¯2} twins promote the transformation more effectively than pyramidal 〈c + a〉 dislocations or {112¯2} twins. Post-mortem electron backscatter diffraction further shows that pre-seeded defects stabilize the ω-phase at ambient conditions. In-situ stress-hold neutron diffraction experiments are also performed combining both hydrostatic and deviatoric stresses capturing the role of deviatoric stresses on phase transformation kinetics. These results support the findings of recent atomistic simulations indicating flow of prismatic 〈a〉 dislocations at an α-ω interface promotes the growth of the ω domain.