Engineering Materials

ME - 213

Strengthening mechanisms

S. Kanagaraj
http://www.iitg.ac.in/kanagaraj

13-09-2022, 14-09-2022
and 15-09-2022
Strengthening mechanisms
 Restricting the dislocation motion through crystasl structure provides
a material harder and stronger.
 The ability of a metal to plastically deform depends on the ability of
dislocations to move

 Finer grain boundaries – Re-crystallizing and cold working

 Increase dislocation density via cold working (strain hardening)
 Add alloying elements to give –solid solution hardening.
 Add alloying elements to give precipitates or dispersed particles –
precipitation hardening
 Dispersion hardening– fine particles (carbon) impede dislocation
movement
Strain ageing
Martensitic strengthening
 Dispersion and precipitate
strengthening

Solution hardening (alloying)

Atomic size factor, Crystal structure,
Electronegativity, Valences
Solid-solution strengthening

Effect of solute concentration on shear

yield strength of dilute copper-base Substitutional and Interstitial solid solution
alloys
Solid-solution strengthening

Representation of tensile strains Representation of compressive strains

Increase in strength, σ, of steel as a function of The effect of substitutional solutes on the yield strength of iron.
content of solute
The effect of substitutional solutes on the characteristics of Copper based alloys
Effect of strengthening mechanisms for copper alloys
Effect of strengthening mechanisms for steel
Strain (Work) Hardening
Effect of strengthening mechanisms for the deformed products under hot and cold working conditions
 Work-hardening (Strain-hardening)
 The tensile strength, yield strength and hardness are increased,
 The plasticity, general ability to deform, electrical conductivity, density
and others are also lowered
 The yield stress of mild steel may be raised by cold work from 170 up
to 1050 MPa
 The movement of dislocations is restricted after work hardening.
 Two parallel edge dislocations of opposite sign moving on parallel slip
planes in any sub-grain may become stuck
 Some dislocations become 'stuck' inside the crystal and act as sources
of internal stress which oppose the motion of other gliding dislocations
Ludwik’s Equation:
Strain hardening index
 parabolic hardening region

linear
hardening
region

The hardening rate

Easy glide region

Stress-strain curve of FCC showing the

three stages of work hardening.
Stress-strain curves of single crystals
Strain (Work) Hardening
 Taylor first recognized that work hardening is due to
dislocation interactions.
 Seeger & Friedel: Dislocation pileups at obstacles such as
Lomer-Cottrell locks. Explains stage II hardening well.
 Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf: Mesh length theory based on dislocation
cells.
 Orowan Equation: Difficult to predict work-hardening
behavior because of unpredictability of the strain which is a
function of both radius and distribution.
 Strengthening by grain size reduction

The grain boundary acts as a barrier to dislocation motion for two reasons:

1. Since the two grains are of different orientations, a dislocation passing into grain B will have to change
its direction of motion; this becomes more difficult as the crystallographic misorientation increases.
2. The atomic disorder within a grain boundary region will result in a discontinuity of slip planes from one
grain into the other.
Dislocations tend to “pile up” at grain boundaries leading to stress concentrations ahead of their slip planes, which
generate new dislocations in adjacent grains.
Strengthening by grain size reduction
 Small angle grain boundaries are
not very effective in blocking
dislocations.
 High-angle grain boundaries
block slip and increase strength
of the material.
 A stress concentration at end of
a slip plane may trigger new
dislocations in an adjacent grain.
Strengthening by grain size reduction

 The finer the grains, the larger the area of grain boundaries that
obstructs dislocation motion.
 Grain-size reduction usually improves toughness
 The yield strength varies with grain size d according to Hall-Petch
equation:

 where σo and ky are constants for a particular material, d is the average grain
diameter.
Strain ageing
Precipitation Hardening

Precipitation of solute clusters - Guinier-Preston zones (GP zones)

Precipitation Hardening

Θ’
Change in hardness with time of
various Al–Cu alloys aged at 130°C.
θ

Al–Cu alloy
θ (CuAl2) precipitates at the grain
boundaries and θ’ (Cu2Al) precipitates in
the grain interiors

aluminum alloys and nickel-based superalloys

Age Hardening

transition (θ”) phase equilibrium θ phase

Age hardening in steel
Dispersion Strengthening

Disperse small strong particles (i.e. carbon) to impede dislocations

Successive positions of a dislocation as it bypasses particles that obstruct its

motion.
Orowan mechanism
 The dislocation bow out between two particles
 Yielding occurs when the bowed-out dislocation becomes
semi-circular in shape
 After the yielding, the dislocation leaves Orowan loops around the
particles
 The formation of the Orowan loops makes the dislocation
motion more and more difficult, which results in large work-hardening
 CRSS for the Orawan mechanism (Orowan stress)
 Orowan's equation is a very basic equation for the rheology of materials that deform by the
movement of dislocations (Burger's vector, dislocation density and the dislocation velocity)
 Finely dispersed particles are obstacles for dislocation motion

 Ex. Al2O3 in Al or Cu, ThO2 in Ni

 In dispersion-hardening, hard and insoluble second phases in a soft metallic matrix, 3--4 vol.%
maximum is added
Martensitic
Transformation
Martensitic Transformation
Composite strengthening

σc = σmVm + σfVf EC=EmVm+ EfVf