Characterising the Onset of Crystal Fracture with Scanning-3DXRD

As a result of recent developments at the ID11, Scanning Three Dimensional X-ray Diffraction Microscope (S3DXRD) methods for intragranular strain reconstruction has emerged. These methods have been used to reveal the 3D strain tensor field during in-situ loading of an ensemble of quartz grains. It was found that the 3D intragranular deformation fields featured strain localisation. At elevated loads, close to grain fracture, the study of these localisations requires not only a high spatial resolution in terms of narrow x-ray beam, but also, since the fracture transition itself is rapid, the increment between load steps must be small. To meet these requirements, we propose to perform S3DXRD measurements of a single grain during in-situ loading. By limiting the field of view to a single grain rather than an ensemble, we may decrease the beam size and increase the number of load steps for a given scan time. This will allow us to resolve the 3D deformation evolution leading up to fracture.