Strain softening and hardening during superplastic-like flow in a fine-grained MgAl₂O₄ spinel polycrystal

Superplastic-like flow in a fine-grained MgAl₂O₄ polycrystal exhibits strain softening and hardening, which cannot be ascribed to cavity damage and grain growth during deformation, respectively. The softening and hardening can be related to a change in the internal stress, which depends on a decrease and an increase in the density of the intragranular dislocations, respectively, whose motion contributes to the relaxation of stress concentrations exerted through the predominant deformation mechanism of grain-boundary sliding. In these two regions, the rate of deformation is controlled by the continuous recovery of the dislocations limited by lattice diffusion of the oxygen ions.