EME 4353 Advanced Engineering Materials

Lecture 3 :
Plastic Deformation
 Learning Objectives

1. To define hardness and explain how it is measured.

2. To describe the various available hardness scales
3. To explain the differences between elastic and plastic
deformation at atomic level
4. To describe the concept of slip, dislocations and
twins

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 2

 Hardness
Resistance to permanent indentation
• Good hardness generally means material is
resistant to scratching and wear
• Most tooling used in manufacturing must be hard
for scratch and wear resistance

What is the hardest

material on earth?
 What is the hardest material on earth?

The first, wurtzite boron nitride has a

similar structure to diamond, but is
made up of different atoms.

The second, the mineral lonsdaleite,

or hexagonal diamond is made from
carbon atoms just like diamond, but
they are arranged in a different shape.
 Hardness Tests

Most well-known
hardness tests are:

Brinell Indenter
Rockwell
Vickers
Anvil
Knoop
 Hardness Tests
• Hardness tests are performed more frequently than
any other mechanical test for several reasons:

– Simple and inexpensive

– The test is nondestructive. A small indentation
is the only deformation
Indentation
 Correlation between Hardness and
Tensile Strength

Both tensile strength and

hardness are indicators of a
metal’s resistance to plastic
deformation.

TS(Mpa) = 3.45 X HB

Relationships between hardness and tensile

strength for steel, brass, and cast iron.
Hardness Conversion
 Hardness Question

What will be the diameter of an indentation to yield a hardness of

450 HB when a 500-kg load is used? Diameter Brinell hardness
indenter = 10 mm.
 Tensile-Test

Outline of a tensile-test sequence showing different stages in the

elongation of the specimen: Elastic → Plastic → Fracture

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 12

 Elastic Deformation

Metal atoms are displaced from their original positions but not to
the extend that they take up new positions  reversible process

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 13

 Plastic Deformation

Metal atoms are permanently displaced from their original positions

and take up new positions  irreversible process

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 14

 Stress-strain problems

A cylindrical specimen of a titanium alloy having an elastic modulus

of 107 GPa and an original diameter of 3.8 mm will experience only
elastic deformation when a tensile load of 2000 N is applied.
Compute the maximum length of the specimen before deformation if
the maximum allowable elongation is 0.42 mm.

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 15

 Stress-strain problems

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 16

 Stress-strain problems

A steel bar 100 mm long and having a square cross

section 20 mm on an edge is pulled in tension with a
load of 89,000N and experiences an elongation of 0.10
mm. Assuming that the deformation is entirely elastic,
calculate the elastic modulus of the steel.

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 17

 Stress-strain problems

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 18

 Stress-strain problems

For a bronze alloy, the stress at which plastic deformation begins is

275 MPa, and the modulus of elasticity is 115 Gpa.

(a) What is the maximum load that may be applied to a specimen with a
cross-sectional area of 325 mm2 without plastic deformation?

(b) If the original specimen length is 115 mm, what is the maximum
length to which it may be stretched without causing plastic
deformation?

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 19

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 20
 Dislocations

• Plastic deformation corresponds to motion of large

numbers of dislocation

Microscopic
level

Macroscopic
level

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 21

 Slip in Single Crystal Metals
1. Process by which plastic deformation by dislocation
is termed slip
 Crystallographic plane along which the
dislocation line traverses is slip plane
 Direction of motion is slip direction
 Combination of slip plane and slip direction is slip
system

Slip in Zn single
Slip geometry
crystal

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 22

 Twinning

• A part of the atomic lattice is deformed so that it forms a

mirror image of the undeformed lattice next to it

Twinning plane – crystallographic plane of symmetry between

deformed and undeformed parts of metal lattice

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 23

 True Stress - True Strain Curve

True stress is the stress determined by the

instantaneous load acting on the instantaneous cross-
sectional area.
In this expression, K and n are
constants; these values will vary
from alloy to alloy.

The parameter n is often termed

the strain hardening exponent.

When n = 1, the material is elastic,

and when n = 0, it is rigid and
perfectly plastic.

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 24

 Strain hardening

• Is a phenomenon whereby a ductile metal becomes

harder and stronger as it is plastically deformed
 Higher stress level is required to create larger strain

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 25

 Strain hardening

Strain hardening is also called as work hardening

Most metals strain harden at room temperature.

Degree of plastic deformation is termed as percent cold

work (%CW)

where A0 is the original area of the cross section that

experiences deformation and Ad is the area after
deformation.

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 26

 Strain hardening

Cold working refers to the process of strengthening a metal

by changing its shape without the use of heat.

When these metals are cold worked, permanent defects

change their crystalline makeup. These defects reduce the
ability of crystals to move within the metal structure and the
metal becomes more resistant to further deformation.

The resulting metal product has improved tensile

strength and hardness, but less ductility. Cold rolling
and cold drawing of steel also improve surface finish.

Example: cold rolling, bending, drawing

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 27
 Strain hardening

Example: cold rolling, bending, drawing

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 28

 Strain hardening
Two previously undeformed cylindrical specimens of an alloy are to be
strain hardened by reducing their cross-sectional areas (while
maintaining their circular cross sections). For one specimen, the initial
and deformed radius are 16 mm and 11 mm, respectively. The second
specimen, with an initial radius of 12 mm, must have the same
deformed hardness as the first specimen; compute the second
specimen’s radius after deformation.

Two cylindrical specimens

Specimen A
Initial radius = 16mm
Deformed radius = 11mm Equal %CW for
both specimens
Specimen B
Initial radius = 12mm
Deformed radius = ?
Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 29
 Strain hardening

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 30

 Solid Solution Strengthening

Another technique to strengthen and harden metals is

alloying with impurity atoms that go into either
substitutional or interstitial solid solution.

High-purity metals are almost always softer and

weaker than alloys composed of the same base metal.

Increasing the concentration of the impurity results in an

attendant increase in tensile and yield strengths

Last Updated: 18/01/2020 © I-Station Solutions Sdn Bhd 31