Deformation texture of aluminium – A grain interaction simulation approach

We present plane strain simulations about the dependence of orientational in-grain subdivision and crystallographic deformation textures in aluminium polycrystals on grain interaction. The predictions are compared to experiments. For the simulations we use a crystal plasticity finite element and different polycrystal homogenization models. One set of finite element simulations is conducted by statistically varying the arrangement of the grains in a polycrystal. Each grain contains 8 integration points and has different neighbor grains in each simulation. The reorientation paths of the 8 integration points in each grain are sampled for the different polycrystal arrangements. For quantifying the influence of the grain neighborhood on subdivision and texture we use a mean orientation concept for the calculation of the orientation spread among the 8 originally identical in-grain orientation points after plastic straining. The results are compared to Taylor-Bishop-Hill-type and Sachs-type models which consider grain interaction on a statistical basis. The progress report reveals five important points about grain interaction. First, the consideration of local grain neighborhood has a significant influence on the reorientation of a grain (up to 20% in terms of its end orientation and its orientation density), but its own initial orientation is more important for its reorientation behavior than its grain neighborhood. Second, the sharpness of the deformation texture is affected by grain interaction leading to an overall weaker texture when compared to results obtained without interaction. Third, the in-grain subdivision of formerly homogeneous grains occurring during straining is strongly dependent on their initial orientation. [...

Differential regulation of non-protein coding RNAs from Prader-Willi Syndrome locus

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a neurogenetic disorder caused by the deletion of imprinted genes on the paternally inherited human chromosome 15q11-q13. This locus harbours a long non-protein-coding RNA (U-UBE3A-ATS) that contains six intron-encoded snoRNAs, including the SNORD116 and SNORD115 repetitive clusters. The 3′-region of U-UBE3A-ATS is transcribed in the cis-antisense direction to the ubiquitin-protein ligase E3A (UBE3A) gene. Deletion of the SNORD116 region causes key characteristics of PWS. There are few indications that SNORD115 might regulate serotonin receptor (5HT2C) pre-mRNA processing. Here we performed quantitative real-time expression analyses of RNAs from the PWS locus across 20 human tissues and combined it with deep-sequencing data derived from Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE-seq) libraries. We found that the expression profiles of SNORD64, SNORD107, SNORD108 and SNORD116 are similar across analyzed tissues and correlate well with SNORD116 embedded U-UBE3A-ATS exons (IPW116). Notable differences in expressions between the aforementioned RNAs and SNORD115 together with the host IPW115 and UBE3A cis-antisense exons were observed. CAGE-seq analysis revealed the presence of potential transcriptional start sites originated from the U-UBE3A-ATS spanning region. Our findings indicate novel aspects for the expression regulation in the PWS locus

High stress twinning in a compositionally complex steel of very high stacking fault energy

Deformation twinning is rarely found in bulk face-centered cubic (FCC) alloys with very high stacking fault energy (SFE) under standard loading conditions. Here, based on results from bulk quasi-static tensile experiments, we report deformation twinning in a micrometer grain-sized compositionally complex steel (CCS) with a very high SFE of ~79 mJ/m2, far above the SFE regime for twinning (<~50 mJ/m2) reported for FCC steels. The dual-nanoprecipitation, enabled by the compositional degrees of freedom, contributes to an ultrahigh true tensile stress up to 1.9 GPa in our CCS. The strengthening effect enhances the flow stress to reach the high critical value for the onset of mechanical twinning. The formation of nanotwins in turn enables further strain hardening and toughening mechanisms that enhance the mechanical performance. The high stress twinning effect introduces a so far untapped strengthening and toughening mechanism, for enabling the design of high SFEs alloys with improved mechanical properties

Micromechanical and macromechanical effects in grain scale polycrystal plasticity experimentation and simulation

A polycrystalline aluminum sample with a quasi-2D single layer of coarse grains is plastically deformed in a channel die plane strain set-up at ambient temperature and low strain rate. The microtexture of the specimen is determined by analysis of electron back scattering patterns obtained in a scanning electron microscope. The spatial distribution of the plastic microstrains at the sample surface is determined by measurement of the 3D plastic displacement field using a photogrametric pixel-based pattern recognition algorithm. The initial microtexture is mapped onto a finite element mesh. Continuum and crystal plasticity finite element simulations are conducted using boundary conditions which approximate those of the channel die experiments. The experimental and simulation data are analyzed with respect to macromechanical and micromechanical effects on grain-scale plastic heterogeneity. The most important contributions among these are the macroscopic strain profile (friction), the kinematic hardness of the crystals (individual orientation factors), the interaction with neighbor grain, and grain boundary effects, Crystallographic analysis of the data reveals two important points. First, the macroscopic plastic strain path is not completely altered by the crystallographic texture, but modulated following soft crystals and avoiding hard crystals. Second, grain-scale mechanisms are strongly superimposed by effects arising from the macroscopic profile of strain, The identification of genuine interaction mechanisms at this scale therefore requires procedures to filter out macroscopically induced strain gradients. As an analysis tool, the paper introduces a micromechanical Taylor factor, which differs from the macromechanical Taylor factor by the fact that crystal shear is normalized by the local rather than the global von Mises strain. (C) 2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved