Lecture 12.

Dislocations and
Strengthening Mechanisms (2)
Learning Objectives
After this lecture, you should be able to do the following:

1. Explain how grain boundaries impede dislocation motion and why a

metal having small grains is stronger (grain size reduction).
2. Describe solid-solution strengthening for substitutional impurity atoms
(solid-solution alloying).
3. Explain the phenomenon of strain hardening (or cold working) in terms
of dislocations and strain field interactions.

Reading

Chapter 7: Dislocations and Strengthening Mechanisms (7.87.13)

Multimedia

Virtual Materials Science & Engineering (VMSE):

http://www.wiley.com/college/callister/CL_EWSTU01031_S/vmse/

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 1

Mechanisms of Strengthening in
Metals

Early materials studies: the theoretical strengths of perfect crystals are many
times greater than those actually measured.
The discrepancy could be explained by a type of linear crystalline defect:
dislocation (1930s).
Design materials to have high strength yet some ductility and toughness

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 2

1. Elastic Deformation

Elastic deformation is nonpermanent: when the applied load is released, the

piece returns to its original shape (not breaking atomic bonds).
Hookes Law
E [Pa]: Modulus of elasticity, or Youngs modulus

Linear elastic deformation

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Nonlinear elastic deformation

Lecture 12 - 3

Yield Strength, y

Yield strength: The stress level at which plastic deformation begins, or

yielding occurs.
Yield point phenomenon

Yield Strength, y

P: Proportional limit
(onset of plastic
deformation at the
microscopic level

Strain offset of 0.002

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* Yield stress for nonlinear elastic deformation

(Figurer 6.6): stress required to produce some
amount of strain (e.g., =0.005)
Lecture 12 - 4

Tensile Strength, TS
M = Tensile strength (TS)

TS

Necking

Tensile strength: Maximum

stress on engineering
stress-strain curve;
maximum stress that can be
sustained by the structure in
tension
If this stress is applied,
fracture will result.
F = Fracture or ultimate
strength
Neck acts as stress
concentrator; fracture
occurs at the neck.

Metals: occurs when noticeable necking starts.

Polymers: occurs when polymer backbone chains are aligned and about to break.
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 5

Ductility

Stress

Ductility: Measure of the degree

of plastic deformation that has
been sustained at fracture
Brittle: little or not plastic
deformation (approximately, a
fracture strain < 5%)
Ductility usually increases with
temperature.
Percent elongation

Percent reduction in area

Strain
1. It indicates the degree to which a structure will deform plastically before fracture
2. It specifies the degree of allowable deformation during fabrication operations
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 6

Measures of Energy Capacity 2:

Toughness
Tensile toughness: Measure of the ability of the material to absorb energy
without fracture
The area under the entire stress-strain curve up to fracture (Unit: J/m3)
Fracture toughness: Materials resistance to fracture when a crack (or other
defect) is present
Engineering
tensile
stress,

small toughness (ceramics)

large toughness (metals):
strength + ductility
very small toughness
(unreinforced polymers)

Engineering tensile strain, e

Brittle fracture:
Ductile fracture:
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

elastic energy
elastic + plastic energy

U f d
0

Lecture 12 - 7

Measures of Energy Capacity 1:

Resilience
Resilience: Capacity of a material to absorb
energy when it is deformed elastically and
then, upon, unloading, to have the energy
recovered.

Stress

Modulus of resilience [J/m3] Measure of

the ability of material to store elastic energy;
Strain energy per unit volume required to
stress a material from an unloaded state up
to the point of yielding

Strain
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

U r d
0

Lecture 12 - 8

Mechanisms of Strengthening in
Metals

Early materials studies: the theoretical strengths of perfect crystals are many
times greater than those actually measured.
The discrepancy could be explained by a type of linear crystalline defect:
dislocation (1930s).
Design materials to have high strength yet some ductility and toughness
Strengthening mechanisms: Relation between dislocation motion and
mechanical behavior of metals
Macroscopic plastic deformation: motion of large numbers of dislocations; the
ability of a metal to deform plastically depends on the ability of dislocations to
move.
- Reduce the mobility of dislocations enhance mechanical strength
Principles: Restricting or hindering dislocation motion renders a material
harder and stronger
(1) Grain size reduction
(2) Solid-solution alloying
(3) Strain hardening

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 9

1. Mechanism of Strengthening:
Grain Size Reduction

The size of the grains, or average grain diameter, in a polycrystalline metal

influence the mechanical properties. Why?

Grain boundary: Barrier to dislocation motion

(1) When crossing a grain boundary, a dislocations direction of motion must change.
(2) There is a discontinuity of slip planes within the vicinity of a grain boundary.

Slip planes are discontinuous and

change directions across the
boundary
For high angle grain boundaries,
dislocations tend to pile up at
the boundaries, which introduce
stress concentration and
generate new dislocations in
adjacent grains.

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 10

Mechanism of Strengthening:
Grain Size Reduction
Hall-Petch equation
The yield strength varies with
grain size:

where d is the average grain

diameter.
* A metal that has small grains is
stronger than one with large
grains because the former has
more grain boundary area (more
barriers to dislocation motion).

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 11

Strategies for Strengthening:

1: Reduce Grain Size
Grain boundaries are
barriers to slip.
Barrier "strength"
increases with
Increasing angle of
misorientation.
Smaller grain size:
more barriers to slip.

Fig. 7.14, Callister & Rethwisch 9e.

(From L. H. Van Vlack, A Textbook of Materials
Technology, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1973.
Reproduced with the permission of the Estate of
Lawrence H. Van Vlack.)

Hall-Petch Equation:
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 12

Grain Size Influences Properties

Metals having small grains relatively strong
and tough at low temperatures
Metals having large grains good creep
resistance at relatively high temperatures

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Lecture 12 - 13

2. Mechanism of Strengthening:
Solid-Solution Strengthening

Solid-solution strengthening: Alloying with impurity atoms that go into either

substitutional or interstitial solid solution.
Solid-solution strengthening results from lattice strain interactions between
impurity atoms and dislocations; these interactions decrease dislocation
mobility.

(a) Tensile lattice strains imposed on

host atoms. (b) Partial cancellation of
impurity-dislocation lattice strains.

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

(a) Compressive strains imposed on

host atoms. (b) Partial cancellation of
impurity-dislocation lattice strains.

Lecture 12 - 14

Dislocation Motion: Edge Dislocation

Dislocation motion and plastic deformation
Metals - plastic deformation occurs by slip: an edge dislocation (extra
half-plane of atoms) slides over adjacent plane half-planes of atoms.

If dislocations can't move, plastic deformation doesn't occur!

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 15

Mechanism of Strengthening:
Solid-Solution Strengthening

Solid-solution strengthening: Alloying with impurity atoms that go into either

substitutional or interstitial solid solution

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 16

Lattice Strains Around Dislocations

Fig. 7.4, Callister & Rethwisch 9e.

(Adapted from W.G. Moffatt, G.W. Pearsall, and J. Wulff,
The Structure and Properties of Materials, Vol. I, Structure,
p. 140, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1964.)

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 17

Strengthening by Solid
Solution Alloying
Small impurities tend to concentrate at dislocations
(regions of compressive strains) - partial cancellation of
dislocation compressive strains and impurity atom tensile strains

Reduce mobility of dislocations and increase strength

Fig. 7.17, Callister &

Rethwisch 9e.
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 18

Strengthening by Solid
Solution Alloying
Large impurities tend to concentrate at
dislocations (regions of tensile strains)

Fig. 7.18, Callister &

Rethwisch 9e.
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 19

VMSE Solid-Solution Strengthening Tutorial

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 20

Ex: Solid Solution

Strengthening in Copper

400
300
200

0 10 20 30 40 50

Yield strength (MPa)

Tensile strength (MPa)

Tensile strength & yield strength increase with wt% Ni.

180
Adapted from Fig.
7.16 (a) and (b),
Callister &
Rethwisch 9e.

120
60

wt.% Ni, (Concentration C)

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

Empirical relation:
Alloying increases y and TS.
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 21

3. Mechanism of Strengthening:
Strain Hardening

Strain hardening: The enhancement of strength (and decrease of ductility) of

a metal as it is deformed plastically deformed (cold working or work
hardening)
>

y i
y o

Percent cold work (%CW):

Degree of plastic deformation

2. Unload

Stress

1. Load

3. Reapply
load

Strain
Fig. 6.17, Callister &
Rethwisch 9e.

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Elastic strain
recovery
Lecture 12 - 22

Mechanism of Strengthening:
Strain Hardening

Strain hardening: A ductile metal becomes harder and stronger as it is

plastically deformed (cold working or work hardening)

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 23

Strategies for Strengthening:

Cold Work (Strain Hardening)
Deformation at room temperature (for most metals).
Common forming operations reduce the cross-sectional
area:
-Forging

force

die
A o blank

-Drawing
die
Ao
die

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

-Rolling
Ad

force
Ad

roll

Ao
Adapted from Fig.
11.9, Callister &
Rethwisch 9e.

Ad

roll

-Extrusion
Ao
tensile
force

force

container

ram

billet

container

die holder
extrusion

Ad

die

Lecture 12 - 24

Dislocation Structures Change

During Cold Working
Dislocation structure in Ti after cold working.
Dislocations entangle with one another
during cold work.
Dislocation motion becomes more
difficult.
During plastic deformation, dislocation
density increases, the average
distance between dislocations
decreases, and, because dislocationdislocation strain field interactions are
on average repulsive, dislocation
mobility becomes more restricted; thus
the metal becomes harder and
stronger.

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 25

Dislocation Density Increases

During Cold Working
total dislocation length
Dislocation density =
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 d increases:
MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 26

Impact of Cold Work

As cold work is increased
Yield strength (y) increases.
Tensile strength (TS) increases.
Ductility (%EL or %AR) decreases.

Adapted from Fig. 7.20,

Callister & Rethwisch 9e.

low carbon steel

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 27

Mechanical Property Alterations

Due to Cold Working
What are the values of yield strength, tensile strength &
ductility after cold working Cu?
Copper
Cold
Work

Do = 15.2 mm

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Dd = 12.2 mm

Lecture 12 - 28

Mechanical Property Alterations

Due to Cold Working

500
300

300 MPa

100
0

20

40

Cu

% Cold Work

60

y = 300 MPa

60

800
600
400 340 MPa

Cu
200

20

40

60

ductility (%EL)

700

tensile strength (MPa)

yield strength (MPa)

What are the values of yield strength, tensile strength &

ductility for Cu for %CW = 35.6%?

40
20

Cu

7%
00

% Cold Work

TS = 340 MPa

20

40

60

% Cold Work

%EL = 7%

Fig. 7.19, Callister & Rethwisch 9e. [Adapted from Metals Handbook: Properties and Selection: Irons
and Steels, Vol. 1, 9th edition, B. Bardes (Editor), 1978; and Metals Handbook: Properties and Selection: Nonferrous
Alloys and Pure Metals, Vol. 2, 9th edition, H. Baker (Managing Editor), 1979. Reproduced by permission of ASM
International, Materials Park, OH.]

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 29

Summary
1. Plastic deformation and dislocation mobility:
Restricting dislocation motion leads to increased
hardness and strength
2. Mechanisms of Strengthening in Metals:
(1) Grain size reduction
(2) Solid-solution alloying
(3) Strain hardening

MSE 3300 / 5300 UTA Fall 2014

Lecture 12 - 30