Strengthening

Mechanisms
1.Introduction
2.Strain (Work) hardening
3.Grain boundary strengthening
4.Solid Solution strengthening
5.Precipitation (two-phase)
Strengthening
6.Steel Alloys Strengthening
7.Composite Strengthening
 ?

?
1. INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Revisited: Dislocations and Material
Classes
• Metals: Disl. motion easier.
-non-directional bonding + + + + + + + +
-close-packed directions + + + + + + + +
for slip. + + + + + + + +
electron cloud ion cores

• Covalent Ceramics
(Si, diamond): Motion hard.
-directional (angular) bonding

• Ionic Ceramics (NaCl):

Motion hard. + - + - + - +
-need to avoid ++ and -- - + - + - + -
neighbors.
+ - + - + - +
 Introduction
Dislocation Motion
• Produces plastic deformation, Plastically
• Depends on incrementally breaking stretched
bonds. zinc
single
crystal.
Adapted from
Fig. 7.9, Callister
6e. (Fig. 7.9 is
from C.F. Elam,
The Distortion of
Metal Crystals,
Oxford University
Adapted from Fig. 7.1, Callister 6e. (Fig. 7.1 is adapted from A.G. Press, London,
Guy, Essentials of Materials Science, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1935.)
New York, 1976. p. 153.)

• If dislocations don't move, deformation doesn't

Adapted from
happen!  Means that the material is hard! Fig. 7.8, Callister
6e.
 Introduction
Dislocation Motion vs Strength of Materials

• Plastic deformation depends on the ability of …………

to move. The easier they move….. the ….the material.
• Engineering alloys are designed to have maximum
strength with some ductility and toughness.
• All strengthening mechanisms rely on restricting the
motion of dislocations.
• Mechanisms of strengthening are:
• Strain (Work) hardening
• Grain boundary strengthening
• Solid Solution strengthening
• Precipitation (two-phase) Strengthening
• Steel Alloys Strengthening
• Composite Strengthening
2. STRAIN
HARDENING
 Strain or Work Hardening
• Strain hardening (work hardening) is where a
material becomes less ductile, harder and stronger
with plastic deformation.
• Encountered only during cold working
• Percentage cold work can be expressed as:

( A0  Ad )
%CW  x100%
A0
Ao = original cross-sectional area
Ad = deformed cross-sectional area
 Cold Work (%Cw)
• Room temperature deformation.
• Common forming operations change the cross
sectional area:
-Forging force -Rolling
roll
die Ad
A o blank Ad Ao
Adapted from Fig.
11.7, Callister 6e. roll

-Drawing force -Extrusion

Ao
die Ad container die holder
Ao tensile force
force ram billet extrusion Ad
die container die
A
o
Ad
%
CW x
100
A
o
Impact of Cold Work
• Yield strength (s ) increases.
y
• Tensile strength (TS) increases.
• Ductility (%EL or %AR) decreases.
Stress

Adapted from Fig. 7.18,

Callister 6e. (Fig. 7.18 is
from Metals Handbook:
Properties and Selection:
Iron and Steels, Vol. 1,
9th ed., B. Bardes (Ed.),
American Society for
Metals, 1978, p. 221.)

%
co
ld
wo
rk S t ra i n
21
Impact of Cold Work
• Dislocation density increases with CW.
• Motion of dislocations is hindered as their density
increases.
• Stress required to cause further deformation is
increased
• Strain hardening is used commercially to improve
the yield and tensile properties
• cold-rolled low-carbon steel sheet
• aluminum sheet
• strain hardening exponent n indicates the response
to cold work (i.e. larger n means greater strain
hardening for a given amount of plastic strain).
Impact of cold work
 Change of mechanical properties
after cold work
Copper
What is the tensile
strength & ductility after Cold Work
cold working?

Do=15.2mm Dd=12.2mm
 1
See :http://aluminium.matter.org.uk/
   0  Gb 2
s (MPa)

Dislocations undergo dynamic recovery

– they have arranged into cell walls (or
sub boundaries) in order to minimise
the total strain energy. The crystal
between these sub-boundaries is
Aluminium 1050 relatively free of dislocations
Dislocations During Cold Work
• Ti alloy after cold working:

• Dislocations entangle
with one another
during cold work.
• Dislocation motion
becomes more difficult.

Adapted from Fig.

4.6, Callister 6e.
(Fig. 4.6 is courtesy
of M.R. Plichta,
Michigan
Technological
0.9 m University.)
 Result of Cold Work
• Dislocation density (d) goes up:
Carefully prepared sample: d ~ 103
mm/mm3
• Ways of measuring dislocation 10
Heavily deformed sample: d ~ 10
density:
Volume, V 3
40m
Area, A
mm/mm dislocation Micrograph
pit adapted from
length, l1 Fig. 7.0,

length, l2 OR Callister 6e.

(Fig. 7.0 is
N dislocation
length, l3 courtesy of W.G.
pits (revealed Johnson,
 
d  l1 l2 l3
by etching) General Electric
 N Co.)
V d
A
• Yield stress s
sy1 large hardening
increases as d
sy0 small hardening
increases:

DISLOCATION-DISLOCATION TRAPPING
• Dislocation generate stress.
• This traps other dislocations.

Red dislocation
generates shear at A
pts A and B that
opposes motion of
green disl. from
B
left to right.
 a b c

d e f

g h i
Dislocation interaction

Snapshots of the simulation of two

interacting dislocations. (a) Two dislocations
are initially intersecting at their midpoints
and are pinned at their extremities. (b)-(c)
They form a zipping junction. (d)-(g) They
unzip. (h)-(i) New dislocations are created
and dislocations multiply.
http://micro.stanford.edu/wiki/M02_Straight_dislocation
 Dislocation interaction

ParaDiS simulation of a 10 micron-cubed representative volume of a model BCC

metal (Mo) under uniaxial deformation at constant strain rate of 1 s-1. Dislocations
are colored by their Burgers vectors: normal Burgers in green, junctions in red.
http://paradis.stanford.edu/about
Dislocation interaction

This picture shows a dislocation multi-junction first discovered from a ParaDiS

simulation. For more details see Dislocation multi-junctions and strain hardening,
Nature, 440, 1174 (2006). Graphics by Meijie Tang, Rich Cook, Sean Ahern
(LLNL).
Cold Work is Anisotropic
When you deform a piece of
metal you elongate the grain.
Slip occurs only in the favored
directions
You strengthen the material in
the direction it is deformed, but
properties in the other directions
do not change as much.
Cold Working Wire
When you draw wire, you
strengthen in the longitudinal
direction
It is not strengthened axially
This makes it easy to cut, but
hard to break by pulling on it!!
Effect of Crystal Structure
HCP metals are already brittle
◦ Little strain hardening is possible
◦ Strain hardening coefficient around 0.05
BCC metals are less brittle than HCP
◦ Some strain hardening is possible
◦ N around 0.15
FCC metals are ductile
◦ Strain hardening is easy
◦ N around 0.5
Strain Hardening in
Polymers
When you pull on a polymer, the
chains line up
Van der Waal bonds form
between the chains
The polymer becomes stronger
Try it with a 6-pack ring!!
s- BEHAVIOR VS TEMPERATURE
• Results for 800
-200°C
polycrystalline iron: 600

Stress (MPa)
400 -100°C
25°C
200
Adapted from Fig. 6.14,
Callister 6e. 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Strain
• sy and TS decrease with increasing test temperature.
• %EL increases with increasing test temperature.
3. disl. glides past obstacle
• Why? Vacancies 2. vacancies
help dislocations replace
atoms on the
past obstacles. disl. half obstacle
plane 1. disl. trapped
by obstacle
 Annealing-Recrystallization in
Metals
• Ductility and strain hardening limit the amount of cold forming that can be done.
• In some operations, metal must be annealed to allow further deformation.
• In other cases, metal is simply not ductile enough to be cold worked
• Purposes of annealing:
• ……………………...
• ……………………...
• ………………………
Annealing-Recrystallization in
Metals
Annealing process
results in: recovery
and recrystallization,
which may be
followed by grain
growth

Schematic illustration of the

effects of recovery,
recrystallization, and grain
growth on mechanical
properties and on the shape
and size of grains.
EFFECT OF HEATING AFTER %CW
• 1 hour treatment at Tanneal...
decreases TS and increases %EL.
• Effects of cold work are reversed!
Annealing Temperature (°C) • 3 Annealing
100 300 500 700
tensile strength (MPa)

600 60 stages to
tensile strength
50 discuss...:

ductility (%EL)
500 - Recovery
40 - Recrystallizatio
400 30 n
ductility Grain
-Adapted growth
from Fig. 7.20, Callister 6e.
20 (Fig.
300 R Re Gr 7.20 is adapted from G. Sachs and K.R.
ec c a in van Horn, Practical Metallurgy, Applied
ov ry
er sta Gr Metallurgy, and the Industrial
y l li z ow Processing of Ferrous and Nonferrous
at th Metals and Alloys, American Society for
io n Metals, 1940, p. 139.)
 Recovery
• Occurs during heating at elevated
temperatures below the recrystallization
temperature.
• Dislocations reconfigure due to
diffusion and relieve the lattice strain
energy.
• Electrical and thermal properties are
recovered to their pre-cold worked
state.
RECOVERY
Annihilation reduces dislocation density.
• Scenario 1 extra half-plane
of atoms Disl.
annhilate
atoms
and form
diffuse
a perfect
to regions
atomic
of tension
plane.
extra half-plane
of atoms
• Scenario 2
3. “Climbed” disl. can now R
move on new slip plane
2. grey atoms leave by
4. opposite dislocations
vacancy diffusion
meet and annihilate
allowing disl. to “climb”
1. dislocation blocked; obstacle dislocation
can’t move to the right
 Recrystallization
Formation of new strain-free grains is
called recrystallization.
Recrystallization results in the nucleation
and growth of new strain-free, equiaxed
grains.
Contain low dislocation density equivalent
to the pre-cold worked condition.
Restoration of mechanical properties
→…………..
Recrystallization takes time – the
recrystallization temperature is specified
as the temperature at which new grains
are formed in about …………Typically it is
between ………………of Tm.
 Recrystallization
• Recrystallization can be exploited in manufacturing.
• Heating a metal to its recrystallization temperature
prior to deformation allows a greater amount of
straining, and lower forces and power are required to
perform the process.
• Rate of recrystallization increases with amount of
cold work
• Require a critical amount of cold-work to cause
recrystallization (2-20%).
• Recrystallization is easier in pure metals than alloys.
• …………….. involves deformation and concurrent
recrystallization at high temperature.
RECRYSTALLIZATION
• New crystals are formed that:
--have a small disl. density
--are small
--consume cold-worked crystals.
0.6 mm 0.6 mm

Adapted from
Fig. 7.19 (a),
(b), Callister
6e. (Fig. 7.19
(a),(b) are
courtesy of J.E.
Burke, General
Electric
Company.)

33% cold New crystals

worked nucleate after
brass 3 sec. at 580C.

26
FURTHER RECRYSTALLIZATION
• All cold-worked crystals are consumed.

0.6 mm 0.6 mm

Adapted from
Fig. 7.19 (c),
(d), Callister
6e. (Fig. 7.19
(c),(d) are
courtesy of J.E.
Burke, General
Electric
Company.)

After 4 After 8
seconds seconds

27
Recrystallization

The variation of
recrystallization temperature
with percent cold work for iron.
For deformations less than the
critical (about 5%CW),
recrystallization will not occur.
GRAIN GROWTH
• At longer times, larger grains consume smaller
ones.
• Why? Grain boundary area (and therefore energy)
is reduced.
0.6 mm 0.6 mm
Adapted from
Fig. 7.19 (d),
(e), Callister
6e. (Fig. 7.19
(d),(e) are
courtesy of J.E.
Burke, General
Electric
Company.)
After 8 s, After 15 min,
580C 580C
coefficient dependent
• Empirical Relation:
on material and T.
exponent typ. ~
grain
2 diam. elapsed time
n n
at time t. d  do  Kt
Brass
 Grain Growth
• Growth of new grains will
continue at high temperature.
• Does not require recovery and
recrystallization.
• Occurs in both metals and
ceramics at elevated
temperature.
• Involves the migration of grain
boundaries.
• Large grains grow at expense
of small ones (grain
cannibalism).
• Reduction of grain boundary
area (driving force) Schematic representation of grain
growth via atomic diffusion.
 Grain Growth
• Variation of grain size (d)
with time is:

d n  d 0n  Kt
where do = initial grain
size at t = 0, and K and n
are time-independent
constants, n is 2
• log d versus log t plots
The logarithm of grain diameter versus
give linearity at grain size increases with the logarithm of
…………………. time for grain growth temperature in brass
• Toughness and strength at several temperatures.

are superior in fine

grained materials.
Problem
Propose a series of steps to
reduce a rod of copper-zinc alloy
from 1” diameter to .1”diameter.
The maximum cold work
allowable for copper is 85%.
You will have to draw the copper,
then anneal it several times.
What is the tensile strength of
your final product?
From “Materials Science”, by John Russ