Coble-creep response and variability of grain-boundary properties

A microstructural model of steady-state creep that couples grain-boundary transport, micromechanics, and grain sliding is employed to investigate the grain-boundary diffusional creep response of an idealized microstructure with variable boundary diffusivities. Both numerical and analytical methods were used to determine the stress state and, in some cases, the strain rate associated with an applied uniaxial, tensile stress. Various types of boundaries are considered, and the implications of our results for more general microstructures are discussed.