ENME 665 Elements of Materials
Engineering
Topic 5 – Strengthening
Mechanisms
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1.
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>15 °
<15 °
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Twin GB
Phase interface
High-angle grain boundaries
– Dislocations may not traverse grain boundaries during deformation
– A stress concentration ahead of a slip plane in one grain may
activate sources of new dislocations in an adjacent grain.
Small-angle grain boundaries
– Not effective in interfering because of slight misalignment
Twin boundaries
– Effectively block slip and increase the strength of the material
Boundaries between two different phases
– Impediment (obstacle/barrier) to movements of dislocations
– Important in strengthening complex alloys
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Hall-Petch Equation: For many materials, yield
strength varies with grain size as
1/ d: average grain diameter
σ σ kd 0 and ky are material constants
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y 0 y
Hall-Petch relationship
Hall-Petch equation is not
valid for very large and
extremely small grain
materials
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2. Solid Solution Strengthening
Another technique to strengthen and harden metals is
alloying.
– Adding impurity atoms that go into either substitutional or
interstitial solid solution
High-purity metals are almost always softer and weaker.
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Strain field around edge dislocation
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Solute atoms tend to diffuse to and segregate around
dislocations reduce strain energy to cancel some lattice
strain surrounding a dislocation
To accomplish this,
– a smaller impurity atom is located where its tensile strain
will partially nullify some of the dislocation’s compressive
strain
– A larger atom to nullify tensile strain of dislocation
Resistance to slip is greater (dislocation with lower energy is
more stable)
– Overall lattice strain must increase if dislocation is
torn away from them
– Same strain interaction exist between atoms and
dislocation
that are in motion during plastic deformation
greater applied stress is needed to initiate and continue 21
3.
1
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Second phase in dispersion
hardening is usually
nitride/oxide/carbide
(insoluble)
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4.
2
by
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Recovery, Recrystallization, and Grain Growth
Plastic deformation of polycrystalline metal at
temperatures lower than its melting temperature produces
micro-structural and property changes
includes
1. A change in grain shape
2. Strain hardening
3. Increase in dislocation density
Some fraction of deformation energy (about 5%) stored in
metal as strain energy
– Associated with tensile, compressive and shear zones
around newly created dislocations
Other properties (such as electrical conductivity and corrosion
resistance ) may be modified by plastic deformation.
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Modified properties and structures due to plastic
deformation (cold work)
– May revert back to the precold-worked states by
Annealing
– Annealing is a heat treatment process
Restoration due to different processes at
elevated temperatures
– Recovery
– Recrystallization
Above processes may be followed by grain
growth.
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Recovery
At elevated temperature
enhanced atomic diffusion
dislocation motion
some stored strain energy relieved
Recovery process involves
– Reduction in dislocation numbers
– Dislocation configuration with low
strain energy
Physical properties are recovered to their
precold-worked state
– Electrical and thermal conductivities
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Recrystallization
Even after recovery is complete, the grains are still in
a relatively high strain energy state.
Recrystallization is the formation of a new set of strain-
free and equiaxed grains having low dislocation densities
as the precold-worked state.
Difference in internal energy between the strained and
unstrained material acts as the driving force to
produce new grain structure
New grains form as very small nuclei grow until
completely replace the parent material involves short-
range diffusion
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Recrystallization (Cont.)
Several stages of recrystallization
(a) cold-worked
(33%) grain
structure
(b) Initial stage
of
recrystallizatio
n after heating
3 s at 580oC
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Several stages of recrystallization
(c)Partial
replacement of
cold-worked
grains by
recrystallized ones
(4s at 580oC)
(d)complete
recrystallization
(8s at 580oC)
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Several stages of recrystallization
(e) Grain growth
after 15 min at
580oC
(d) Grain growth
after 10 min at
700oC
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Recrystallization (cont.)
During recrystallization, mechanical properties restored to
their precold-worked values
Metal becomes softer, weaker, yet ductile
Some heat treatments are designed to allow recrystallization to
occur these modifications in the mechanical characteristics.
Recrystallization depends on both time and temperature
Influence of time
The degree (or fraction ) of recrystallization increases
with
time
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Recrystallization temperature
– The temperature at which recrystallization just reaches
completion in 1 hour.
– Recrystallization temperature of brass alloy is
about 450oC (850oF).
– It is about 1/3 to ½ of absolute melting temperature
– Depends on several factors, such as % cold work, purity of
alloy etc.
Effect of %CW (carbon weight)
– Increasing %CW enhances the rate of recrystallization
recrystallization temperature is lowered
– Recrysttalization temperature approaches a constant or
limiting value at high deformation.
– Critical degree of cold work
Below which no recrystallization
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Grain growth
After recrystallization is
complete, the strain-free
grains will continue to grow
if the metal specimen is left
at the elevated temperature
phenomenon is known as
grain growth.
It occurs by the migration of
grain boundaries
– Boundary motion is just
the short-range diffusion of
atoms from one side of the
boundary to the other
– Direction of boundary
movement and
atomic motion are
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opposite.
For many polycrystalline materials,
grain diameter (d) varies with time as
dn – do = Kt
n
do : initial grain diameter at t=0 K,
n: time-dependent constants
Dependence of grain size on time
and temperature
– At higher temperature, rapid growth due to
enhancement of diffusion rate
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Mechanical properties at room temperature of a fine-
grained metal are usually superior (strength and
toughness) than coarse-grained ones.
If grain structure of a single phase alloy is coarser than
that desired
plastically deform
subject to recrystallization heat treatment
refine grain size
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