Relationship between single-crystal and polycrystal elastic constants

Abstract

A new method is given for computing effective polycrystalline elastic constants from single-crystal elastic coefficients. Agreement with observation is good. The method is based on the assumed equivalence of the lattice-vibrational properties of single crystals and polycrystals of the same material; single-crystal and polycrystal Debye temperatures are equated. Present predictions of polycrystal elastic moduli differ significantly from those of most other averaging methods by being lower than the familiar Voigt-Reuss-Hill results.