Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Microstructure
&
Mechanical Properties

V Arunkumar
Roll No 2010413002
M.Tech (II Year) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Contents

S.No TOPICS
1. Introduction to Plastic Deformation
2. Grains & Dislocation
3. Strengthening Mechanisms
4. Reference

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Material undergoes Elastic Deformation if Stress < Yield Stress

Material undergoes Plastic Deformation if Stress > Yield Stress

Plastic deformation –the force to break all bonds in the slip plane is much
higher than the force needed to cause the deformation.

Theoretical yield strength predicted for perfect crystals is much greater than
the measured strength.The large discrepancy puzzled many scientists until
Orowan, Polanyi, and Taylor (1934).

The existence of defects (specifically, dislocations) explains the discrepancy.

The reason was proposed by in 1934 by Taylor, Orowan and Polyani: Plastic
deformation is due to the motion of a large number of dislocations.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Defects
Point defects: vacancies, interstitial atoms, substitional atoms, etc.

Line defects: dislocations

(edge, screw, mixed)
Most important for plastic deformation

Surface defects: grain boundaries, phase boundaries, free surfaces, etc.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Edge dislocations
•Burgers vector: characterizes the “strength” of dislocations
•Edge dislocations: b  dislocation line

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Screw dislocations Mixed dislocation

Have both edge and screw
Burgers vector b parallel to dislocation line components.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Movement of an edge dislocation

Break one bond at a time, much easier than breaking all the bonds
along the slip plane simultaneously, and thus lower yield stress.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Dislocations allow deformation at much lower stress than in a perfect crystal

If the top half of the crystal is slipping one plane at a time then only a small fraction of
the bonds are broken at any given time and this would require a much smaller force. The
propagation of one dislocation across the plane causes the top half of the crystal to
move (toslip) with respect to the bottom half but we do not have to break all the bonds
across the middle plane simultaneously (which would require a very large force).The slip
plane–the crystallographic plane of dislocation motion.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Motion of dislocations

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Interactions of dislocations
Two dislocations may repel or attract each other, depending on their
directions.

Repulsion Attraction

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Line tension of a dislocation

Atoms near the core of a dislocation have a higher energy due to
distortion.
Dislocation line tends to shorten to minimize energy, as if it had a line
tension.
Line tension = strain energy per unit length

1 2
T  Gb
2
T
V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Dislocation multiplication
Some dislocations form during the process of crystallization.
More dislocations are created during plastic deformation.
Frank-Read Sources: a dislocation breeding mechanism.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Strengthening mechanisms
Pure metals have low resistance to dislocation motion, thus low
yield strength.

Increase the resistance by strengthening:

Solution strengthening
Precipitate strengthening
Work hardening

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Solution strengthening
Add impurities to form solid solution (alloy)

Example: add Zn in Cu to form brass, strength

increased by up to 10 times.

Cu Cu Cu Cu Cu Cu Bigger Zn atoms make the slip

plane “rougher”, thus increase the
Cu Zn Cu Zn Cu resistance to dislocation motion.

Cu Cu Cu Cu

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Solid solution hardening

•Dissolve other elements (solute) into the parent material (solvent) to form solid solution.

Interstitial solution Substitutional solution

Steel (C in Fe) Brass (Zn in Cu)

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Solid solution hardening

Large distortion due to mismatch makes

it hard for dislocation to move.

Large population of solute atoms

obstruct dislocation motion.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Precipitate strengthening
•Solid solution: single-phase, random mixture of atoms
(substitutionalor interstitutional)
•Precipitates: compound particles precipitates out from
the solution as it is cooled.

•Proper heat treatments can control the formation of

precipitates (more later).
•Dispersion strengthening: mix small particles
(dispersoids) into a powdered metal, then compact and
sinter.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Precipitate strengthening
Precipitates (small particles) can promote
strengthening by impeding dislocation
motion.
Dislocation bowing and looping.
Critical condition at semicircular
configuration:

bL  2T

2T Gb
 
bL L
M.F. Ashby and D.R.H. Jones, Engineering Materials 1, 2 nd ed. (2002)
V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Work-hardening
Dislocations interact and obstruct each other.
Accounts for higher strength of cold rolled steels.

UTS

YU ×
Strain hardening
YL

f 

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Dislocation yield strength

Combine the resistance due to lattice, solid solution,

precipitates, and dislocation tangles in an additive way:

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Polycrystalline materials
Different crystal orientations in different grains.
Crystal structure is disturbed at grain boundaries.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Plastic deformation in Polycrystals

Slip in each grain is constrained

Dislocations pile up at grain boundaries
Gross yield-strength is higher than single crystals (Taylor factor)

 Y  3 Y

Strength depends on grain size

(Hall-Petch Relation

 Y   0  Kd 1 / 2

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Important features of plasticity :

•Stress-strain curves provide a straightforward way to measure yield stress, ultimate tensile
stress and ductility.
•The maximum load and maximum uniform elongation are predictable from the stress-strain
curve (e.g. power law).
•Single crystal behavior reflects the anisotropy of the crystal for both elastic and plastic
behavior.
•Single crystal plastic behavior is controlled by dislocation movement; deformation twinning
can supplement dislocation glide
•The presence of dislocations that can glide at low (critical resolved) shear stresses means
that metals yield plastically at stresses far below the theoretical strength.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties
Slip Systems
•There is a critical shear stress for dislocation flow on any given slip system; this phenomenon
is known as Schmid's Law. The response is elastic if all resolved shear stresses are less than
the critical value:
τ elastic< cosφcosλ σ-applied

•Mechanical tests on single crystals generally activate only one slip system and work
hardening is low.

•Larger strains in single crystal tests, or coincidence of the principal stress with a high
symmetry axis leads to multiple slip (slip on more than one system); in this case the stress-
strain behavior is polycrystal-like.

•A polycrystals can be thought of as a composite of single crystals. The appropriate model for
this composite is the iso-strain model(equivalent to the affine deformation assumption for
polymers). By averaging the stresses (or strains) required for multiple slip in each crystal, an
average for the "inverse Schmid factor", or (more usually) "Taylor factor", can be obtained
whose value is 3.07 for cubic materials deformed in tension or compression with{111}<110>
(or {110}<111>) slip systems.
V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Strain Rate - Dependence Temperature & Grain size

The variation of mechanical behavior with temperature and strain rate depends on the kind of
obstacle that dislocations have to move past.

In fcc metals, yield is dominated by other dislocations (the "forest hardening model") such
that the strain rate/temperature variation is dominated by the (weak) variation in shear
modulus(with temperature) through the "Taylor equation", σ=MαGb√ρ.

In bcc metals, yield at low temperatures is dominated by lattice friction (i.e. the Peierls stress)
and large strain rate/temperature sensitivities are observed. Most ceramics follow the bcc
model because they too have high lattice frictions at low temperatures (but become plastic
and ductile at elevated temperatures).

Single crystals are important because many high temperature applications require single
crystal or coarse poly-crystals in order to maximize creep resistance, i.e. by minimizing grain
boundary area.

Microelectronic applications use single crystals of Si where the absence of grain boundaries is
not important unless MEMS devices are being designed.
V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Strain Rate - Dependence Temperature & Grain size

The work hardening behavior of single crystals is summarized by fourstages: stage I is known
as "easy glide"; stage II as "linear, athermalhardening"; stage III as "dynamic recovery"; and
stage IV as "linearhardening".

For a polycrystal to exhibit ductility, it must be possible for every grain to deform plastically in
an arbitrary manner. This is summarized as vonMises criterion which states that a minimum
of five independent systems are required for ductility. This can be understood most easily by
considering that an arbitrary strain has five independent components there is an equation
(linear) that links the slip on an individual slip system (or twinning system) to the macroscopic
shape change (i.e. strain); therefore five independent systems are needed in order to satisfy
the five independent strain components

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Strain Rate - Dependence Temperature & Grain size

Dislocation flow in a polycrystal is quite heterogeneous. Dislocations get entangled in one

another as they expand over their slip planes. The major consequence of this is that any
dislocation motion (over a distance larger than the mean spacing) leaves behind a certain
amount of dislocation; this is called dislocation storage and hardens the crystal. By a
combination of collapse of tangles and cross-slip (switching of slip planes by screw-
configuration segments), however, dislocations of opposite sign can meet and annihilate; this
is called dynamic recovery (because it only happens during continuing straining)and decreases
the hardening rate (i.e. the net storage rate of dislocations decreases because of dynamic
recovery). Eventually dynamic recovery balances storage and the flow stress saturates, or
nearly so

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

Strain Rate - Dependence Temperature & Grain size

At high temperatures, dynamic recovery occurs early on in straining and, withthe ease of non-
conservative motion (climb), the work hardening becomesnegligible. With rapid dynamic (and
static) recovery, the dislocation structurebecomes a sub-grain structure with well defined, low
angle boundaries. If single crystal is bent, then the dislocations left behind after the
deformation tendto re-arrange themselves into walls of edge dislocations of the same type
andsign. Such a recovered or polygonized structure is a clear example ofgeometrically
necessary dislocations.

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

 REFERENCE

1. “Material Science and Engineering” by William Callister

2. “Material Science for Engineers” by Ashby & Miller

3. Study Materials on Strengthening of Materials by “University of Tennessee, Dept. of

Materials Science and Engineering”

4. Study Materials on Microstructues by “Carnegie Mellon University”

5. Lecture Materials on “Materials Science” by “University of Texas - Austin”

6. Notes by University of Illinois on Material Science - Thermal & Mechanical Properties

of Materials (TOO GOOD – HENCE ENCLOSED HEREWITH)

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
 Microstructure & Mechanical Properties

THANKYOU

V Arunkumar - Roll No 2010413002 M.Tech (II Sem) - Nanoscience & Nanotechnology