Open Access

ARTICLE

Local-Stress-Induced Detwinning in Nanotwinned Al without Shear Stress on Twin Boundaries

Wenchao Shi¹, Tao Wei², Chuan Yang³, Qichao Fan³, Hongxi Liu⁴, Bin Shao^5,*, Peng Jing^4,*

1 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China
2 Marine Design and Research Institute of China, Shanghai, China
3 Institute of Machinery Manufacturing Technology, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, China
4 School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China
5 The National Key Laboratory for Precision Hot Forming of Metals, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

* Corresponding Authors: Bin Shao. Email: ; Peng Jing. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2026, 87(2), 13 https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2026.075293

Received 29 October 2025; Accepted 16 January 2026; Issue published 12 March 2026

Abstract

Enhancing the strength of nanotwinned aluminum (Al) is essential for the development of next-generation high-end chip technology. To better understand the detwinning behavior of nanotwinned Al under conditions with no resolved shear stress acting on the twin boundaries, we conducted molecular dynamics simulations of uniaxial tensile deformation in nanotwinned single-crystal Al at room temperature. Detwinning is observed only when the twin boundary spacing is 7.01 Å. At larger spacings, twin boundaries remain parallel to the loading direction, with no rotation or bending, indicating negligible migration. Detwinning is triggered by localized stress from dislocation interactions, with detwinning fraction evolving synchronously with dislocation density. In the absence of detwinning, dislocations inclined toward twin boundaries interact frequently with them, leading to a loss of coherency that intensifies with increasing twin boundary spacing. These findings enhance understanding of the plastic deformation mechanisms in nanotwinned metals at very small twin boundary spacings, supplement the conventional understanding of twin boundary stability, and therefore suggest potential pathways for designing Al-based nanostructures with enhanced stability or controllable plastic deformation.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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