Ultrafine-grained and nanocrystalline materials frequently show an enhanced rate sensitivity of their mechanical behavior

which is generally assumed to be the consequence of interface sliding or thermally activated dislocation processes at the boundaries. Although this has been well documented on many different materials

the underlying mechanisms and their effect on the ductility of the material are still not well understood. Therefore

here

the deformation behavior of the ultrafine-grained

heterogeneous superplastic alloy Zn-22% Al was analyzed by small-scale nanoindentation and micropillar testing. The results show a breakdown of the superplastic deformation behavior in terms of a reduced strain rate sensitivity at small scales

which has not been reported before

although grain boundary sliding is still prevalent at the nanoscale. These results suggest that grain boundary sliding does not necessarily result in a high strain rate sensitivity and high ductility. Instead

a pronounced strain rate dependent flow behavior requires grain boundary sliding to be controlled by dislocation creep.

IMPACT STATEMENT

Superplastic flow is shown t

o persist down to a small material volume corresponding to a few grains. This has far-reaching consequences for the production of small-scale devices with complex geometries by superplastic forming.