An acoustic emission study of plastic deformation in polycrystalline aluminium

Acoustic emission experiments were performed on polycrystalline and single crystal 99.990/0 aluminium while undergoing tensile deformation. It was found that acoustic emission counts as a function of grain size showed a maximum value at a particular grain size. Furthermore, the slip area associated with this particular grain size corresponded to the threshold level of detectability of single dislocation slip events. The rate of decline in acoustic emission activity as grain size is increased beyond the peak value suggests that grain boundary associated dislocation sources are giving rise to the bulk of the detected acoustic emissions.