Lecture 7-8

Materials
Strengthening

1
ECM3160
 Outline
• Background knowledge
• Four material strengthening methods
- reduce grain sizes
- form solid solution
- precipitation and dispersion
- cold working
• Heat treatment (annealing)
- recovery; recrystallization; grain growth

2
ECM3160
 Background knowledge
• No crystals are perfect since crystals contain dislocations
• Most crystals have a certain intrinsic strength
• The intrinsic strength of crystals is caused by the broken and
reformed bonds between atoms due to the dislocation moves.
Shear Burgers
stress vector

 b = f (1)
Resistive force, per
unit length

• Shear stress (τ) applies to slip plane of a dislocation, exerts a

resistive force (f) on dislocation, pushing them move forward
3
ECM3160
 Background knowledge
• Dislocations move, the plastic deformation of crystal can
generate dislocation yield strength

Define of “dislocation f
y = (2)
yield strength” b
• Covalent bonding has a very large intrinsic lattice resistance:
that causes the enormous strength and hardness of diamond,
carbides, and ceramics used for abrasives and cutting tools.

• Pure metals are generally soft: they have a very low lattice
resistance. So it is useful to increase it by different methods.

4
 Background knowledge
• The ability of plastic deformation of a material depends on the
ability of dislocation mobility — i.e., restricting dislocation
motion leads to increases in hardness and strength.

• Understand how to change the lattice resistance and alter

motion of a dislocation, therefore change the dislocation yield
strength of a specific material.

5
Four strategies for strengthening
1. Reduce grain sizes
• Reduce grain sizes increases the “interaction area” between
grains and hence no. of dislocations, most importantly,
reduces mobility of atoms.
• Grain boundaries are barriers to slip, namely, dislocations
cannot easily cross grain boundaries.
• Barrier "strength” increases with the increase of misorientation
angle, since too many atoms need to be repositioned.

6
ECM3160
 Effect of grain sizes on
material properties
• The smaller the grain sizes, the more barriers to slip, the
higher the strength of the materials

• Grain sizes/diameters can clearly affect material

mechanical properties

• The empirical Hall-Petch equation gives the

relationship between yield stress and grain diameter.

7
ECM3160
 Hall-Petch equation
-1 / 2
s yield = so + k y d (3)

▪ d is the average grain size

▪ σo and ky are constant for a

particular material.

▪ Reduce d, σyield increases.

8
ECM3160
 Reduce grain sizes: Inter-
granular strengthening
• Smaller grains increase Yield Stress and Yield
Strength.

• Grain size reduction improves not only strength,

but also the toughness of materials

• Hall-Petch equation is not valid for very fine or

very large (i.e., coarse) grains

9
ECM3160
 Methods to generate small
grain sizes:

To obtain small grain sizes by Heat Treatments

via:

• Quenching – rapidly cooling or

• Working and annealing – prolonged heating to T ~

0.6Tm.

10
ECM3160
 Effect of grain size on metal
properties
• Metals having small grains – relatively
strong and tough at low temperatures

• Metals having large grains – good creep

resistance at relatively high
temperatures

11
ECM3160
 2. Form solid solutions
• Impurity solutes go into a solid metal solution just as
sugar dissolves in water.
• Impurity atoms distort the lattice & generate lattice strains.
• These strains can act as barriers for dislocation motion.
Smaller substitutional impurity Larger substitutional impurity

A C

B D

Impurity generates local stress at Impurity generates local stress at

A and B that opposes dislocation C and D that opposes dislocation
motion to the right. motion to the right.
12
ECM3160
Strengthening by solid solution alloying
• Small impurities partial cancel dislocation compressive
strains and impurity atom tensile strains, and tend to
concentrate at dislocations (regions of compressive strains)
• Large impurity atoms impose compressive strains in its
vicinity and tend to concentrate at dislocations (regions of
tensile strains)
• Both cases can reduce the mobility of dislocations and
increase strength of materials

(c)
(d)
13
ECM3160
 Substitutional solid solutions

• Random substituted atoms of similar size in solid solution.

• For example: addition of Zn to Cu to make brass (at room
temperature, up to 30% Zn can be dissolved in Cu).
• RZn atom slightly > RCu atom, Zn squeezes into Cu structure,
generate stresses. These stresses ‘‘roughen’’ the slip plane,
making it harder for dislocations to move. → increase the
dislocation yield strength and tensile strength.
14
ECM3160
 Interstitial solid solutions
• solute atoms are located in the spaces between
large solvent atoms.
Example:
Carbon in iron for steel
• Again, this roughens the slip plane and increase f.

15
ECM3160
 Solid solution hardening
• Dissolved Impurities
generates local stresses
• Roughen the slip planes

f SS
y =  C (4)
b

• With increasing the concentration (C) of dissolved

atoms, the spacing between them becomes smaller,
and the slip plane become “rougher”, both tensile
strength and yield strength increase.
• σγ  C1/2 16
ECM3160
 Example: Solid solution
strengthening in Cu-Ni alloy
• Tensile strength & yield strength increase with wt% Ni.
Tensile strength (MPa)

180

Yield strength (MPa)

400
120
300

200 60
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
wt.% Ni, (Concentration C) wt.%Ni, (Concentration C)

• Introduce Ni to Cu and form alloy increases sy and TS.

• Empirical relation: s y ~ C 1/ 2

17
ECM3160
3. Precipitate & dispersion strengthening

• Precipitation:
─ more impurities compared with in solid solution hardening
─ not all impurities dissolved => precipitates
─ impurity dissolved in metal or ceramic at high temperature
─ on cooling, the impurity may precipitate as small particles,
like sugar will crystallize from a saturated solution when cooled.
• Examples:
─ “Duralumin”: Al alloy + 4% Cu (very small, closely spaced
hard CuAl2 precipitates).
─ Most steels (carbide precipitates). ECM3160
18
Precipitate & dispersion strengthening

• Dispersion:
─ Small particles can be introduced into metals or ceramics
directly. e.g., Mix dispersoid (e.g., an oxide or non-oxide) +
powdered metal (e.g., aluminum or lead), compact, and sinter.

• Both precipitation and dispersion approaches result in the

distribution of small, hard particles in the path of a moving
dislocation, improving material strengths
19
ECM3160
Precipitate & dispersion strengthening
• Precipitates pin two segments of a dislocation. The additional
applied shear stress has to push the dislocation between the
obstacles.
• It is like blowing up a balloon in a bird cage: a very large
pressure is needed to bulge the balloon between the bars.

20
Result: Dislocations bow past precipitates ECM3160
Precipitate & dispersion strengthening
• Stress τ necessary to move
dislocation past obstacles
with average spacing, L:

2T
y = (5)
bL
Reminder:

• The greatest hardening is

produced by strong, closely
spaced precipitates or
dispersions.
21
ECM3160
 Application of
precipitation strengthening
• Internal wing structure on Boeing 767

• Aluminum is strengthened with precipitates formed with

alloy at high temperature
700
T(ºC) L CuAl2
600
 +L q+L
A
500 q
+q
400

300
0 10 20 30 40 50 1.5mm
(Al) wt% Cu
composition range 22
available for precipitation hardening ECM3160
 4. Cold working
• The phenomenon that a ductile metal becomes harder and
stronger after it is plastically deformed
• Also called Strain hardening or Work hardening
• Most metals strain harden at room temperature
• When crystals yield, dislocations move through them.
• Most crystals have several slip planes. Dislocations on these
intersecting planes interact, and obstruct each other, and
accumulate in the material, which result in work-hardening:
the steeply rising stress–strain curve after yield.

23
ECM3160
 Cold working
• Common forming operations reduce the cross-sectional area
to realize plastic deformation of metals:
-Forging force -Rolling
roll
die Ad
A o blank Ad Ao
roll

-Drawing force -Extrusion

Ao
die Ad container die holder
Ao tensile force
force ram billet extrusion Ad
die container die

• It’s convenient to use percent cold work (%CW) to express

the degree of plastic deformation:
Ao - Ad
%CW = x 100 (6)
Ao
Ao: original area of the cross section that experiences deformation 24
Ad: the area after deformation ECM3160
 Dislocation structures change
during cold working
• Dislocation structure in Ti after cold working.
• Dislocations entangle with
one another during cold
working.
• Dislocation motion becomes
more difficult.

25
ECM3160
 Cold working
• During cold working, strain fields cause dislocations to interact
• Dislocations therefore obstruct each other and accumulate
• Initially, the metal with yield strength σyo is plastically deformed
to point D. The stress is released, then re-applied with a
resultant new yield strength, σyi.
• The metal has thus become stronger during the process
because σyi is greater than σyo.

26
ECM3160
 Dislocation density increases
during cold working
total dislocation length (7)
Dislocation density (rd) = unit volume
– Carefully grown single crystals
→ ca. 103 mm-2
– Deforming sample increases density
→ 109-1010 mm-2
– Heat treatment reduces density
→ 105-106 mm-2

• Yield stress increases as rd increases

27
ECM3160
 Impact of cold working
As cold work is increased:
• Yield strength (sy) increases.
• Tensile strength (TS) increases.
• Ductility (%EL or %AR) decreases.
• The enhancement of hardness and strength is in the
cost of the ductility of the metal.

28
ECM3160
Influence of cold work on the
stress-strain behavior
- cold work has a remarkable effect on the stress-strain
behavior of materials As cold work increases:
• Yield strength (sy)
increases
• Tensile strength (TS)
increases
• Ductility (%EL or %AR)
decreases

29
ECM3160
 Mechanical property alterations
due to cold working
• What are the values of yield strength, tensile strength &
ductility after cold working Cu from 15.2 mm to 12.2 mm?
pDo2 pDd2
Copper -
Cold %CW = 4 4 x 100
Work pDo2
4
Do2 - Dd2
Do = 15.2 mm Dd = 12.2 mm = x 100
Do2
(15.2 mm) 2 - (12.2 mm) 2
%CW = x 100 = 35.6%
(15.2 mm) 2
30
ECM3160
 Mechanical property alterations
due to cold working
• What are the values of yield strength, tensile strength &
ductility for Cu for %CW = 35.6%?

60

tensile strength (MPa)

yield strength (MPa)

700 800

ductility (%EL)
40
500 600
300 MPa Cu
300 Cu 400 340 MPa 20
Cu 7%
100 200 00
0 20 40 60 0 20 40 60 20 40 60
% Cold Work % Cold Work % Cold Work

sy = 300 MPa TS = 340 MPa %EL = 7%

31
ECM3160
 Overview
• Four strengthening mechanism discussed:
1) grain size reduction
2) solid solution strengthening
3) precipitation and dispersion
4) cold working

• The different strengthening methods can conjunction with

one another
• High temperature heat treatment (HT) can influence the
strengthening effects:
- HT can eliminate or reduce strengthening effects due to the
grain size reduction and cold working
- However, HT has no effect on solid solution strengthening

32
ECM3160
Effect of heat treating after cold working
• Heat treatment at Tanneal: decreases TS and increases %EL.
• Effects of cold work are nullified! or reduced by heat treating
• Annealing (T ~ 0.6 Tm) undoes work hardening
─ dislocations diffuse away & grains reform
─ repeated work and annealing allows large deformation
annealing temperature (ºC)
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
tensile strength (MPa)

600 60 • During annealing, 3

tensile strength

ductility (%EL)
50 stages appear:
500 1. Recovery
40
2. Recrystallization
400 30 3. Grain Growth
ductility 20
300

33
ECM3160
3 stages during heat treatment:
1). Recovery
• During recovery stage, the elevated temperature
accelerates the atom diffusion, which results in some of
the stored internal strain energy is relieved by
dislocation motion.

• The no. of dislocations is partly reduced, the dislocation

configuration with low strain energies are produced.

• Physical properties of materials such as electrical and

thermal conductivities and so on are recovered to their
pre-cold worked states.

34
ECM3160
3 stages during heat treatment:
2). Recrystallization
• New grains are formed that:
-- have low dislocation densities
-- are small in size
-- consume and replace parent cold-worked grains.
0.6 mm 0.6 mm

33% cold New crystals

worked nucleate after
brass 3 sec. at 580C.
35
ECM3160
As recrystallization continues…
• All cold-worked grains are eventually consumed/replaced.
• Why? Grain boundary area (and therefore energy) is
reduced.
0.6 mm 0.6 mm

After 4 After 8
seconds seconds

36
ECM3160
 Recrystallization temperature
TR : recrystallization temperature (TR) is the
temperature at which recrystallization just reaches
completion with highest rate of property change.
TR ≈ (1/3 – ½ )Tm (K)
For a specific metal/alloy, TR depends on:
• Annealing time: Due to diffusion, shorter
annealing time needs higher TR
• %CW: TR decreases with increasing %CW
• Purity of metal: TR decreases with increasing
purity

37
ECM3160
3 Stages during heat treatment:
3). Grain growth
-- Small grains shrink (and ultimately disappear)
-- Large grains continue to grow
0.6 mm 0.6 mm

• Grain size d varies with

time t
• At longer times, average
After 8 s, After 15 min,
grain size increases.
580ºC 580ºC
coefficient dependent
• Empirical Relation:
on material and T.
exponent typ. ~ 2
elapsed time
grain diam.
at time t. d n
- don = Kt (8) 38
ECM3160
Effect of annealing temperature

TR

TR = recrystallization
TR temperature

TR ≈ (1/3 – ½ )Tm (K)

º 39
ECM3160
Overview of annealing

40
ECM3160
 Example problem:
Diameter reduction procedure
A cylindrical rod of brass originally 10 mm in diameter
is to be cold worked by drawing. The circular cross
section will be maintained during deformation. A cold-
worked tensile strength in excess of 380 MPa and a
ductility of at least 15 %EL are desired. Furthermore,
the final diameter must be 7.5 mm. Explain how this
may be accomplished.

41
ECM3160
Diameter reduction procedure -
Solution
What are the consequences of directly drawing
to the final diameter?
Brass
Cold
Work

Do = 10 mm Df = 7.5 mm

æ Ao - Af ö æ Af ö
%CW = çç ÷÷ x 100 = çç1 - ÷÷ x 100
è Ao ø è Ao ø
æ pD 2 4 ö æ æ 7 .5 ö 2 ö
= ç1 - f ÷ x 100 = ç1 - ç ÷ ÷ x 100 = 43.8%
ç pD 2 4 ÷ ç è 10 ø ÷
è o ø è ø
42
ECM3160
 Diameter reduction procedure –
Solution (Cont.)

420 540

• For %CW = 43.8%

– sy = 420 MPa
– TS = 540 MPa > 380 MPa (meet the requirement)
– %EL = 6 < 15 (not meet the requirement)
• This doesn’t satisfy criteria… what other options are possible? 43
ECM3160
Diameter reduction procedure –
Solution (cont.)

380 15

12

For TS > 380 MPa > 12 %CW

For %EL > 15 < 27 %CW

 our working range is limited to 12 < %CW < 27

44
ECM3160
 Diameter reduction procedure –
Solution (cont.)
Cold work, then anneal, then cold work again
• For objective we need a cold work of 12 < %CW < 27
– We’ll use 20 %CW
• Diameter after first cold work stage (but before 2nd cold
work stage) is calculated as follows:
æ D 2ö D 2
%CW
ç
%CW = 1 - f 2 ÷ x 100 Þ 1 - f 2 =
ç D 2÷ D02 2 100
è 02 ø
Df 2
Df 2 æ %CW ö
0. 5 D02 =
= ç1 - ÷  æ %CW ö
0.5
D02 è 100 ø ç1 - ÷
è 100 ø
0.5
æ 20 ö
Intermediate diameter = Df 1 = D02 = 7.5 mm ç1 - ÷ = 8.39 mm
è 100 ø
45
ECM3160
 Diameter reduction procedure –
Summary
Stage 1: Cold work – reduce diameter from 10 mm to 8.39 mm
æ æ 8.39 mm ö2 ö
%CW1 = ç1 - ç ÷ ÷ x 100 = 29.6
ç è 10 mm ø ÷
è ø
Stage 2: Heat treat (allow recrystallization)
Stage 3: Cold work – reduce diameter from 8.39 mm to 7.5 mm
Fig 8.19
s y = 340 MPa
  7 .5  2

%CW2 = 1 − 
  8.39 
 x 100 = 20

 TS = 400 MPa
 
%EL = 24
Therefore, all criteria satisfied.

If %CW is in the range of 13-26%, the intermediate diameter D02 will

be in 8.04 – 8.72 mm. They can all meet the criteria!
46
ECM3160
 Summary
• Strength of metals may be increased by:
-- decreasing grain size
-- solid solution strengthening
-- precipitate hardening
-- cold working
• A cold-worked metal that is heat treated may
experience
-- recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth – its
properties will be altered.
Reading:
• Callister & Rethwisch: Fundamentals of Materials
Science & Engineering Chap. 8
Homework:
• Continue “Teaching yourself phase diagrams”
47
ECM3160