Grain boundary migration during room temperature deformation of nanocrystalline Ni

We report simulation results showing grain boundary motion in nanocrystalline Ni. The sample, containing 200 grains of 5 nm average grain size, was deformed to strain levels up to 12% at room temperature using molecular dynamics techniques and an empirical potential. We observe grain boundary mobility for distances up to 2.5 nm, or half the grain size. The results support the notion of stress driven grain boundary migration in nanocrystalline materials that could be part of a basic deformation mechanism.