5501ICBTAE

Automotive Materials & Manufacturing Processes

Lecture 2-Structure of Common

Engineering Materials
Structure of Engineering Materials
What is “Structure of Engineering Materials”??
On an atomic level, a structure is understood as the
organization of atoms relative to each other to form a
material. It determines and understand virtually every detail
about a material such as,
- Material Properties
- Potential applications
- Performance within those applications
Length Scale of Material Structure
The structure of a material can be studied at different length
scale levels
• Atomic structure
• Short- and long range atomic arrangement=>crystalline or amorphous
• Nano structure (1 to 100 nm)
• Microstructure (0.1 to 100 µm)
• Macrostructure (>100 µm)

Single phase or multi-phase

Crystalline & Amorphous Structure
• Material Structure can be distinguished into two types considering
the atomics arrangement of Engineering materials.
• Amorphous: (a), (b), (c)

• Crystal structure: (d)

• Short range order: (b)

• Long range order: (d)

• Single crystal: (d)

• Polycrystal: (e)
Crystal Structure
• The most common structure in Engineering material is Crystal
Structure

• Crystalline materials consist of repeating 3D patterns or lattices of

Atoms/molecules or ions.
• Atoms are situated in a repeating or periodic array over large atomic
distances; that is, long-range order exists, such that upon
solidification, the atoms will position themselves in a repetitive three-
dimensional pattern, in which each atom is bonded to its nearest-
neighbor atoms
• Molecular, Ionic and Atomic are the three types of Crystalline solids.
• Atomic solids or arrangements can be further distinguished as
Metallic, Ionic and Covalent considering the bonding that exists
between the constituent atoms to arrange structures.
1.Ionic Bond: electrostatic attraction between positive and
negative charges.
 2. Covalent Bond: appears in its pure form in diamond, silicon, and
germanium—all materials with large moduli. Always two atoms "sharing" a pair
of electrons

3. Metallic Bond: most dominant bond in metals and their alloys. In a

solid metal, the highest energy electrons tend to leave the parent atoms (which
become ions) and combine to form a “sea” of freely wandering electrons, not
attached to any ion in particular
Atomic Bonds and Structure
Unit Cell
• The atomic order in crystalline solids indicates that small groups of
atoms form a repetitive pattern. Thus, in describing crystal structures,
it is often convenient to subdivide the structure into small repeat
entities called unit cells.
• Unit cells for most crystal structures are parallelepipeds or prisms
having three sets of parallel faces.
• A unit cell is chosen to represent the symmetry of the crystal
structure, wherein all the atom positions in the crystal may be
generated by translations of the unit cell integral distances along each
of its edges.
• There are 7 crystal systems available with respect to the atomic
arrangement of unit cells.
Common Crystal Structures for Metal
1. Primitive cubic: Atoms are present only at the corners. Every
atom at the corner is shared among 8 adjacent unit cells.

2. Face centered cubic (FCC): Atoms are arranged at the corners and
center of each cube face of the cell.
3. Body centered cubic (BCC): Atoms are arranged at the corners of the
cube with another atom at the cube center

4. Slide centered cubic: Atoms concentrated on the sides of the

unit cell.
Miller Index for a Plane
Miller Index: Specify directions and planes of atoms in crystal structure
1. Take intercepts of the plane on x, y and z axes 1, 1, ∞
(If the plane is passing through the origin, origin of the unit cell must be moved)
2. Take reciprocal of these intercepts 1/1 = 1, 1/1=1, 1/ ∞ =0
3. Clear fractions but not reduce to lowest integers 1, 1, 0
4. Enclose the resulting numbers in a parentheses ().
Negative numbers should be written with a bar over
the number.
(110)
Planes of a family
• Examples of lattice plane
Determine Miller Index for a direction

(origin point & another point on the direction terms a, b, c)

b
Directions of a family
Miller index for direction-Example Problem 1
Determine the Miller indices of directions A, B, and C
 Direction A X Y Z
Two points coordinate

𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 − 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙

Clear fractions

Miller index

Direction B
Two points coordinate

𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 − 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙

Clear fractions

Miller index

Direction C
Two points coordinate

𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 − 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙

Clear fractions

Miller index
Miller index for direction- Example Problem 2
Draw a [1 -1/2 0] direction within a cubic unit cell
 Amorphous Materials
• Non-crystalline solids lack a systematic and
regular arrangement of atoms over
relatively large atomic distances.
• Sometimes such materials are also called
amorphous or supercooled liquids,
inasmuch as their atomic structure
resembles that of a liquid.
• Metals normally form crystalline solids, but
some ceramic materials are crystalline,
whereas others, the inorganic glasses, are
amorphous.
• Polymers may be completely non-crystalline
and semicrystalline consisting of varying
degrees of crystallinity.
Structure of Ceramics
1. Crystalline
• Lattice point is occupied either by atoms or ions depending on the
bonding mechanism.
• These atoms (or ions) are arranged in a regularly repeating pattern in
three dimensions
2. Amorphous (non-crystalline)
• The atoms exhibit only short-range order
Structure of Polymers
Microstructure
After the Crystal Structure, the next larger structural level of Engineering materials
is “Microstructure”.
Microstructure:
Large sets/groups of Atomic arrangements are called, Microstructure. It determines
the most of the properties of materials.
❑The grain size, types of phase present, description of the crystal structure, shape,
size of distribution and 2- dimensional defects describe the microstructure of
Engineering materials.
• Microstructure can be visualized by different methods
Influence of Compositions & Structure on
material properties
• Chemical composition and the internal structure like crystal structure
or grain size determine the mechanical and physical & chemical
properties of materials.

• Some of the properties are structure in-sensitive.

• Structure in-sensitive properties:- Young’s Modulus, Melting point,

Specific heat, Coefficient of thermal expansion etc.
 Phase diagram is the main tool to determine the
impact of compositions and structure on material
properties.
Phase Diagram

A phase diagram is used to map out the existence and conditions of

various phases of a given system at different temperature levels.
Phase diagrams can be used to;

• Development of new alloys based on application requirements.

• Development and control of appropriate heat treatment procedures to improve
the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of these new alloys.
• Troubleshooting problems that arise in application of these new alloys, ultimately

improving product predictability.

Composition
• The chemical composition of engineering materials indicates the
elements which are combined together to form materials and ratio to
the total weight .
• Empirical or molecular formula are used to express the composition
of any material.
Ex:
Grains
Phase
• A phase may be defined as a homogeneous portion of a
system that has uniform physical and chemical
characteristics.
• Every pure material is considered to be a phase; so also is
every solid, liquid, and gaseous solution.
• Single-phase system is termed homogeneous while systems
composed of two or more phases are termed mixtures or
heterogeneous systems
Solubility limit
• For many alloy systems and at some specific temperature,
there is a maximum concentration of solute atoms that may
dissolve in the solvent to form a solid solution; this is called a
solubility limit
 Binary Phase Diagram

• Binary phase diagrams are maps that

represent the relationships between
temperature and the compositions
and quantities of phases at
equilibrium, which influence the
microstructure of an alloy
Grain Growth
Grain growth is the increase
in size of grains (crystallites)
in a material at high
temperature
Cu-Ni Phase Diagram
• In Cu-Ni Phase diagram, solidification
of alloy Co starts on cooing at T1. At
this point, it gives a completely liquid
state of Cu-Ni alloy.
• The first solid formed has a
composition of Cs1 and the liquid Co.
• On further cooling the solid particles
grow larger in size and change their
composition to Cs2 and then Co,
following the solidus whereas the liquid
decrease in volume and changes its
composition from Co to CL3 following
the liquidus.
• The solidification completes at T3.
Properties & Phase Diagrams
Copper-nickel alloy will be stronger than
either pure copper or pure nickel because
of solid solution strengthening.
The mechanical properties of a series of
copper-nickel alloys can be related to the
phase diagram.
The strength of copper increases by solid-
solution strengthening until about 67% Ni
is added.
Pure nickel is solid-solution strengthened
by the addition of copper until 33% Cu is
added.
The maximum strength is obtained for a
Cu 67% Ni alloy, known as Monel. The
maximum is closer to the pure nickel side
of the phase diagram because pure nickel
is stronger than pure copper.
Development of Microstructure in Isomorphous
Alloys & Mechanical Properties
Eutectic Phase Systems
Another type of common and relatively
simple phase diagram found for binary
alloys is known as a binary eutectic phase
diagram. This type of system is
characteristic of a valley in the middle.
The middle point is called as the Eutectic
point and the transformation though this
point is called Eutectic reaction.
Ex:- Pb-Sn system. (L+α)+(L+β) Pb has a fcc
structure and Sn has a tetragonal structure. The
system has three phases: L, α and β.
Development of Microstructure in Eutectic
Alloys (Pb-Sn System)

Solvus: Separation of pure

homogenous solid solution
from fled of several phases
Eutectic Phase Systems
Schematic representations of the equilibrium
microstructures for a lead–tin alloy of composition Schematic representations of the equilibrium microstructures for a lead–tin
C1 as it is cooled from the liquid-phase region alloy of composition C2 as it is cooled from the liquid-phase region.
Development of Microstructure in Eutectic
Alloys (Pb-Sn System)
Alloy III:
At point j: Liquid Solidification starts at
liquidus
At point k: L+α (pre-eutectic α) The
amount α ↑ with ↓T
At point l: (α) (eutectic reaction)
Solidification finishes at the eutectic
temperature
At point m: α+β (pre-eutectic α + (α+β)
eutectic mixture) Further cooling leads to the
depletion of Sn in α and the depletion of Pb in
β.
Ion-Carbon Phase Diagram

• The iron-carbon system of alloys containing up to

6.67% of carbon, discloses the phases compositions
and their transformations occurring with the alloys
during their cooling or heating
Phases available in Fe-C Diagram
L - Liquid solution of carbon in iron;
1. δ-ferrite – Solid solution of carbon in iron. The crystal structure of
δ-ferrite is BCC (cubic body centered).
2. Austenite– Internal solid solution of carbon in γ-iron.
3. α-ferrite – Unalloyed iron phase. At room temperature the stable
form, called ferrite. Has a BCC cubic crystal structure
4. Cementite – iron carbide, intermetallic compound, having fixed
composition Fe3C.
Phase Mixtures
Pearlite – Consists of alternative layers of ferrite and cementite
Ledeburite – Eutectic mixture of austenite and cementite in the form
of alternative layers
• The carbon composition at each level directly influence for the properties of carbon
alloys.
• The δ-ferrite is virtually the same as α-ferrite, except for the range of temperatures
over which each exists
• Pure iron:- Up to maximum carbon content of 0.008% of carbon
• Steel:- From 0.008% to 2.14% carbon content. Different grades of steel within the
range
• Cast iron: Beyond 2.14%. Very hard but limited brittleness
• The maximum solubility of carbon in austenite, 2.14 wt%, occurs at 1147 ˚C. This
solubility is approximately 100 times greater than the maximum for BCC ferrite,
because the FCC interstitial positions are larger and, therefore, the strains imposed
on the surrounding iron atoms are much lower
• This structure of atoms imparts different properties to different phases. We can
choose the phase we want and use it in our applications.
• Even though present in relatively low concentrations, carbon significantly influences
the mechanical properties of ferrite
• Cementite is a hard and brittle substance, influencing on the properties of steels
and cast irons
Boundaries of the diagram:
A1, A2, A3, A4 are ACM are the boundary lines of the diagram. When
temperatures changes, phase change occurs at these boundaries.
• Upper critical temperature (point) A3 : the temperature, below which
ferrite starts to form as a result of ejection from austenite in the
hypoeutectoid alloys.
• Upper critical temperature (point) ACM : the temperature, below which
cementite starts to form as a result of ejection from austenite in the
hypereutectoid alloys.
• Lower critical temperature (point) A1 : the temperature of the austenite-
to-pearlite eutectoid transformation. Below this temperature austenite
does not exist.
• Magnetic transformation temperature A2 : the temperature below which
α-ferrite is ferromagnetic.
• Upper transformation temperature A4: The point in this case
where α changes to δ at high temperatures