Engineering Materials

Student Notes

Note
This document contains the important points discussed in the pre-recorded courseware. It will help in revising the
important concepts related to Engineering Materials course.

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Lecture 9 Notes
Focus Topics:
 Cooling Curve of a Pure Metal and an Alloy.
 Solubility Limit, Phase Diagram and Lever Rule
KEY POINTS
WHY STUDY PHASE DIAGRAM
The knowledge and understanding of phase diagrams is important to the engineer to
relates the design and control of heat-treating procedures; some properties of
materials are functions of their microstructures, and, consequently, of their thermal
histories.
SOLUBILITY LIMIT
The maximum concentration of solute atoms that may dissolve in the solvent to form
a solid solution in alloy systems at specific temperature is called a solubility limit. The
addition of solute in excess of this solubility limit results in the formation of another
solid solution or compound that has different composition.

To illustrate this concept, consider the

sugar–water system. Initially, as
sugar is added to water, a sugar–
water solution forms. As more sugar
is introduced, the solution becomes
more concentrated, until the solubility
limit is reached or the solution
becomes saturated with sugar. At this
time the solution is not capable of
dissolving any more sugar, and
The solubility of sugar in a sugar–water further additions simply settle to the
syrup. bottom of the container.

Thus, the system now consists of two separate substances: a sugar–water syrup liquid
solution and solid crystals of undissolved sugar. This solubility limit of sugar in water
depends on the temperature of the water and may be represented in graphical form
on plot. For compositions and temperatures to the left of the solubility line, only the
syrup liquid solution exists; to the right of the line, syrup and solid sugar coexist. The
solubility limit at some temperature is the composition that corresponds to the
intersection of the given temperature coordinate and the solubility limit line. For
example, at 20oC the maximum solubility of sugar in water is 65 wt%. It also indicates
the solubility limit increases slightly with rising temperature.

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COMPONENTS AND PHASES

 The elements which are mixed initially called as components. Components are
pure metals and/or compounds of which an alloy is composed. For example, in
a copper–zinc brass, the components are Cu and Zn.
 Phase may be defined as a homogeneous portion of a system that has uniform
physical and chemical characteristics. Every pure material as well as every solid,
liquid, and gaseous solution is considered to be a phase. For example, when
water and ice are present in a container, two separate phases exist. One is a
solid, the other is a liquid.
Ex. Aluminium
copper alloy
with two
different
phases.

COOLING CURVES
A cooling curve is a line graph that represents the change of phase of material,
typically from a liquid to a solid. It shows how the temperature of a material decreases
with time, its x-axis represents the time, while y-axis represents temperature.
COOLING CURVE OF A PURE METAL
In cooling curves, pure materials are refereed as a one-component system. The
melting temperature of a pure materials at constant pressure is a single unique
temperature (TM) and at this temperature, both the liquid and solid phases are exist
together.

The molten material is poured into a

mold at the pouring temperature and
𝑇𝑀 specific heat is extracted, result is
temperature of the molten material will
steadily decrease until the melting point
is reached, i.e., TM.

 At the melting point the material will start to crystallise, leading to the evolution
of latent heat at the solid liquid interface, maintaining a constant temperature
across the material.
 Once solidification is complete, steady cooling resumes.

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 The arrest in cooling during solidification allows the melting point of the material
to be identified on a time-temperature curve.
COOLING CURVE OF AN ALLOY
Alloy consisting of two or more components. For simplification here consider binary
system, i.e., two component alloy.
 The molten alloy material is poured into a mold at the
pouring temperature and specific heat is extracted,
result is temperature of the molten material will steadily
decrease until the liquidus point is reached, i.e., TL.
 When the liquidus temperature is reached, solidification
begins and there is a reduction in cooling rate caused
by latent heat evolution and a consequent reduction in
the gradient of the cooling curve.

 The completion of solidification has done at solidus point (T S) and after this point
steady cooling resumes.
 The basic difference in pure metal and alloy cooling curve is solidification
process. In the pure metal solidification has done at single melting temperature,
whereas, solidification of the alloy has done at particular temperature range, i.e.
between the liquidus temperature (TL) and the solidus temperature (TS).

ISOMORPHOUS SYSTEMS
It is consisting substitutional solid solution. Isomorphous means a complete liquid and
solid solubility of the two components. This complete solubility is result of same crystal
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structure, nearly identical atomic radii and electro negativities, and similar valences.
Isomorphous system has been mapped by taking a series of cooling curves over a
range of compositions and corresponding liquidus and solidus temperatures to
determine the phase diagram.
 These are the cooling curves for the same
system, recorded for different
compositions and then displaced along
the time axis.
 The red regions indicate where the
material is liquid, the blue regions indicate
where the material is solid and the green
regions indicate where the solid and liquid
phases are in equilibrium.

 By removing the time axis from the curves and replacing it with composition,
the cooling curves indicate the temperatures of the solidus and liquidus for a
given composition. This allows the solidus and liquidus to be plotted to produce
the phase diagram.


 In this phase diagram zero percent
is pure form of component A, while
100 percent is pure form of
component B. In between, there
are different combinations of
component A and component B.
 These different combinations
provide solidus and liquidus line. It
provides information of starting and
ending of solidification at any
composition

 Here, liquidus line is the line above which the system is entirely liquid, and the
solidus line is the line below which the system is completely solid. Between
these two points the liquid and solid phases are in equilibrium.
Lever Rule
If an alloy consists of more than one phase, the amount of each phase present can be
found by applying the lever rule to the phase diagram.

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The lever rule can be explained by considering a simple balance. The composition of
the alloy is represented by the fulcrum, and the compositions of the two phases by the
ends of a bar. The proportions of the phases present are determined by the weights
needed to balance the system.

The lever rule in general can be written as,

Opposite arm of lever
Phase percent = 𝑋 100
Total length of tie line
So, Fraction of phase 1 = (C2 - C) / (C2 - C1)
and, fraction of phase 2 = (C - C1) / (C2 - C1).

PHASE DIAGRAM
The phases are the function of temperature, composition and pressure. While
establishing phase diagrams pressure equal to 1 atm is always used. The binary
phase diagram of copper–nickel system (just has 2 components) is illustrated here to
understand and interpret isomorphous system of phase diagram.
 In this phase diagram, left side represents
the pure form of copper, while right side
represents the pure form of nickel. In
between, there are different combinations of
copper-nickel.
 The system has 2 phases, namely liquid (L)
and FCC solid solution (𝛼). The region above
liquidus line has L phase, between liquidus
and solidus line has L+ 𝛼 phase and below
solidus line has 𝛼 phase.

INTERPRETATION OF PHASE DIAGRAMS

Rule 1: if we know temperature (T) and composition (C), then we know the type of
phase present. The establishment of what phases are present is relatively simple. One
just locates the temperature–composition point on the diagram and notes the phase(s)
with which the corresponding phase field is labelled

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Example 1: Point A at T = 1100o c and C = 60

wt% Ni.
From phase diagram, we see at this condition
𝛼 phase is present.
Example 2: Point B at T = 1250o c and C = 35
wt% Ni
From phase diagram, we see at this condition
𝐿 + 𝛼 is present.

Rule 2: If we know temperature (T) and composition (C), then we know the
composition of each phase. The first step in the determination of phase composition
is to locate the temperature–composition point on the phase diagram. Then tie line is
constructed across the two-phase region at the temperature of the alloy. The
intersections of the tie line and the phase boundaries on either side are noted. Finally,
perpendiculars are dropped from these intersections to the horizontal composition
axis, from which the composition of each of the respective phases is read.

For example, consider the 35 wt%Ni at

temperature TB, located at point B which
lying within the 𝐿 + 𝛼 region. The tie line
has been constructed across the 𝐿 + 𝛼
phase region. The perpendicular from the
intersection of the tie line with the liquidus
boundary meets the composition axis at
32 wt% Ni which is the composition of the
liquid phase. Likewise, for the solidus–tie
line intersection, we find a composition for
the solid-solution phase, of 42.5 wt% Ni.

Rule 3: If we know temperature (T) and composition (C), then we know the
percentages or fractions of the phases. The tie line is utilized in conjunction with a
procedure to find fractions of the phases that is often called the lever rule, which is
applied as follows:
1. The tie line is constructed across the two-phase region at the temperature of
the alloy.
2. The overall alloy composition is located on the tie line.

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3. The fraction of one phase is computed by taking the length of tie line from the
overall alloy composition to the phase boundary for the other phase, and
dividing by the total tie line length.
4. The fraction of the other phase is determined in the same manner.
5. If phase percentages are desired, each phase fraction is multiplied by 100.

For example, consider the 35 wt%Ni at

temperature TB, located at point B which lying
within the 𝐿 + 𝛼 region. The tie line has been
constructed that was used for the determination
of 𝛼 and L phase compositions. Let the overall
alloy composition be located along the tie line
and denoted as C0, and mass fractions be
represented by W L and W𝛼 for the respective
phases. From the lever rule, W L may be
computed according to,
𝑆 43−35
WL = 𝑆+𝐿 = = 73 wt%
43−32
𝑅
Similarly, W𝛼 = 𝑅+𝑆 = 27 wt%

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