Shear band initiation induced by slip-twin boundary interactions

Strain localization is an important mode of inhomogeneous deformation controlling the ductility of a wide range of materials. In this work, the atomistic mechanism of shear band initiation in nanotwinned polycrystals is studied and is found to be governed by the interactions between dislocations and twin boundaries. A simple model is developed to illustrate the effect of twin boundary density on the initiation of shear bands.