Nonequilibrium state of grain boundaries and spontaneous grain-boundary slippage in bicrystals

Variables (order parameters) that are related to plastic deformation sites and complement the local densities of grain-boundary defects are separated out in a bicrystal being deformed under creep. By solving an evolutionary equation for the order parameters, it is shown that the nonuniformity and periodicity of spontaneous grain-boundary slippage in bicrystals and an increase in the grain-boundary strain rate under the conditions of boundary-lattice dislocation interaction may be attributed to the occurrence of local nonequilibrium regions (autosolitons).