The heterogeneity of persistent slip band nucleation and evolution in metals at the micrometer scale

Abstract

Disentangling fatigue Metal fatigues when repeatedly loaded, ultimately failing when cracks form and propagate through the material. Lavenstein et al. studied the origins of this process in nickel. Using high-resolution observations, they tracked how dislocations evolved into microstructural features called persistent slip bands that preceded crack formation. The evolution of tangles of dislocations to a more regularly spaced pattern form the basis for the persistent slip bands and provide a road map for understanding fatigue cracking in metals. Science , this issue p. eabb2690