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-Ceramics and polymers dont experience plastic deformation through dislocation motion
only for metals
-Plastic deformation is produced through relative motion of one part of a material to
another
-A block of atoms sliding past one another is called slip. This slip occurs along the close
packed plane since there is the least amount of disturbance. But why is yield stress so
high in metals? Whats making them so strong and against dislocation motion?
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-When viewing the slip, 2 angles are created: The angle from the stress-axis to the slip
direction () and the angle from the stress-axis to the normal to the slip plane ().
-Dislocations move under shear stress. Applied stress must be resolved into a slip plane
along a slip direction.
The critically resolved shear stress is the shear stress required to cause a dislocation to
move in a pure single crystal in a metal (o, or CRSS). This value varies for different
crystal structures. It is lower in FCC and higher in BCC (because there is a close packed
plane in FCC for easy dislocation and only a closest packed plane in BCC). The higher
the planar density, the least resistance and the easier dislocations move.
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Ductile metals have many slip systems and a small CRSS. A slip system is one
direction on one plane. For multiple directions on multiple planes, we reduce the
numbers to get the smallest number of distinct (independent) directions and planes. We
then multiply the # of slip directions by the # of slip planes to find the # of slip systems.
-For HCP, if the slip plane is perpendicular to the applied stress-axis then the Schmid
factor can be 0 so it will not slip.
-For FCC, slip will always occur since there are so many slip systems and the metals are
ductile.
-For BCC, it has the same number slip systems as FCC but not as high ductility and
there isnt a close packed plane so CRSS is higher.
-Note that we need about 5 slip systems for good ductility.
To strengthen a material is to provide obstacles for dislocation motion. Thus strength is
equal to a combination of intrinsic strength + additional strength from a mechanism. That
is ys = + . Yield strength is then usually the applied stress to be resolved into shear
stress required for dislocation motion and provide a Schmid factor. o = critical resolved
shear stress in a pure single crystal (flow stress).
Grain-boundary strengthening
-Grain boundaries act as barriers to dislocation motion
-Slip planes are discontinuous across the boundary
-Each grain is orientated differently from its neighbor
The Hall-Petch relation describes how a decrease in grain size results in strength
increase. = + //
is the Hall-Petch coefficient (MNm^(-3/2)) and d is the grain size (diameter in m). ys
is the new yield strength and is the original strength.
= +
Interstitial solute atoms can raise the shear strength by hundreds of MPa whilst
subtitutional solute atoms are not as effective in strengthening.
Strain-hardening (cold-working)
This is a process where a material is plastically deformed to increase its strength. It is
similar to increasing dislocation density via plastic deformation. Yield strength and UTS
increases but in varying amounts. Ductility decreases as strain hardening increases.
There are a few techniques to cold work a metal but we will focus on cold rolling. It is
called cold because it operates at less than 0.4Tmp. The rolling reduces the area to
increase strength. The equation for % reduction in area is the same as % cold worked:
% = 100%
The reason the metal becomes stronger is because dislocation density increases
greatly. The dislocations interfere with the motion of the other dislocations (traffic jam)
and if its harder to move dislocations, the metals yield strength and UTS increases but
it becomes more brittle.
Note: If no dislocations exist, this is called dislocation starvation and plastic deformation
never occurs. This is if grain sizes are really small (nano-sized material).
Intersection points between boundaries and dislocations are called jogs. Dislocations
must bypass these jogs and the shear stress needed to bow a dislocation through a
radius R is = /2 and R is 1/ ^(1/2) so this gives us the equation:
= +
= Typically 0.2-0.5
G = Shear modulus (GPa)
b= Burgers vector of a dislocation (m)
= Dislocation density (m/m^3)
Cold-rolling usually results in the metal having anisotropic properties due to changes in
grain size/shape. Before cold-rolling, the grains are isotropic and after they are
anisotropic. The stretching on these grains creates longer boundaries to stop
dislocations.
Precipitation Hardening
-This kind of strengthening works by growing precipitates locally or by adding very small
and very hard (strong) precipitates or particles to an alloy
-The advantage of this mechanism is that you can control the properties of your metal
because you can add different amounts; different precipitates in any way you choose to
produce drastically different properties for different applications.
-The main disadvantage is that if you use very small precipitates, the intermetallic
compounds can be sheared by dislocations. And at high temperatures, precipitates
become larger and can decrease strength.
The above equation is for case a. Increasing both the precipitates radius and volume of
precipitates will increase strength.
For case b, a certain amount of energy is needed for a dislocation to move around a
precipitate. It is associated with a unit length of a dislocation line. To bow through a
small radius (particles are close together) there is a large increase in the proportional
length of the dislocation line, which costs a lot of energy. This means more applied
stress is needed to move the dislocations along hence higher strength of the metal!
Peak strength occurs when shearing and bowing intersect in terms of particle radius.
Notice that as the precipitate radius gets smaller, then the strength increases. This is
opposite from case a where the radius increasing results in increased strength hence the
competition between the 2 shear and bowing.
Section 7- Annealing
Annealing is a high temperature process that is used to counter (reverse) the effects of
cold working in order to restore ductility and decrease strength. It occurs by 3 steps:
recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth. These steps lower the energy by
rearrangement of dislocations to minimize residual stress, growth of new dislocation-free
grains, and decrease of grain-boundary area. They are affected by time, initial %CW,
and temperature of annealing.
Recovery:
-Occurs first because it requires the lowest activation energy
-Recovery always occurs in annealing whereas recrystallization and grain growth do not.
-It isnt visible since its the rearrangement of dislocations.
-The thermal energy added triggers diffusion and some dislocation motion could occur to
either reduce strain energy or even reduce the number of dislocations.
-The properties dont really change at this stage
-Important as a stress relief anneal where the strength is retained but internal stresses
are removed
-Used to prevent stress corrosion cracking and eliminate distortion
Recrystallization:
-Will not occur unless a certain amount of %CW occurred before (~5% for iron but it
ranges from 2-20% depending on grain size and alloys involved)
-New equiaxed grains (typically smaller than original grains) replacing the heavily
deformed and elongated ones from cold working
-Hardness and strength decreases while ductility increases. Dislocation density is
lowered.
-It is thermally activated and obeys Arrhenius equation for its rate
-The higher the temperature, the faster recrystallization occurs
-Recrystallization temperature (Tr) is the T at which heavily a cold work sample (>50%
CW) will fully recrystallize in one hour. Typically this lies between 0.3-0.7 Tmp in Kelvins.
-Tr is influenced by small amounts of impurities so care must be taken when determining
its value when a metals composition is not known entirely
-We anneal to avoid cracking when a metal has been cold worked and we combine CW
+ Annealing to get desirable properties
Grain Growth:
-Grain growth is the final step and is driven by reduction in grain boundary area
-Large grains grow and the smalls disappear
-There is a drop in strength as grain sizes grow proportional to 1/sqrt(d) (Hall-Petch
equation)
Hot Working
Hot working is a process similar to cold working but it operates at T>0.4Tmp in Kelvins.
Dislocation density doesnt really increase with hot working due to recrystallization
occurring almost immediately. So hot working is like a shortcut to annealing. Less
energy is required to plastically deform a metal but the surface oxidizes quickly and it
must be cleaned or dissolved (not aesthetically pleasing and not dimensionally
accurate). Hot working can produce large reductions in area (much more than cold
working) because yield strength is so much lower at higher temperatures. As the metal is
rolled in high temperature, recrystallization occurs and the grain sizes dont elongate but
rather can be smaller or larger than original depending on temperature. Unlike cold
working, the final material is relatively dislocation free. The yield and UTS can then be
altered through other processes so hot working is often used as an intermediate step.
163
is = where:
3( )^2
r=critical radius
gamma=surface tension
Tm=melting temperature
Delta Hf=latent heat of solidification
Delta T=Tm-T=undercooling
Now lets see how these ideas can be applied to steels. For eutectoid steels,
solid-state eutectoid reaction is important (Austenite Ferrite and Cementite).
Austenite decomposes in lamellar structure (alternating plates) because the
transformation is diffusion limited. Nucleation of ferrite and cementite crystals
starts at austenite grain boundaries; carbon is rejected from the austenite and
ferrite forms, and the rejected carbon diffuses to form cementite. Depending on
the cooling rate (which ultimately affects the magnitude of the undercooling delta
T) the interlamellar spacing will change. For rapid cooling (large delta T) the
pearlite spacing will be very small (fine) because the carbon diffusion distance
will be shorter. For rapid cooling, there will also be more nuclei but less diffusivity
for growth so the spacing is small.
Diffusionless transformations?
-These require nucleation but no growth in order to have a phase transformation.
-They dont need diffusion over large distances.
-Involve a reordering of the atoms (diffusion occurs over very small distance)
-Need to consider surface energy and the pressure the phases induce in each
other
-Can produce metastable phases (austenite transforming into martensite)
Tempered Martensite
-Properties depend on size of cementite carbides formed during tempering
-Smaller carbides mean the more interfacial areas present and dislocation
motions are interrupted
-Size of the carbides increase with temperature and time when tempering
Thermosets
These are polymers like epoxy and bakelite (phenol formaldehyde) that form
primary bonds between the molecules when they polymerize so the whole
structure is held together by a three dimensional network of primary covalent
bonds. Once these polymers are set they cannot be melted. Thus when we mix
the components of epoxy, they link together chemically and polymerize
essentially into one giant molecule. These polymers are stronger and more
stable than thermoplasts, but cannot be formed after setting and cannot be
recycled. A common example is a two-part epoxy (a resin and a hardener). When
mixed the hardener initiates the polymerization reaction to form a high density of
crosslinks, or primary bonds. Thermosets are heavily crosslinked, or are network
polymers. Network polymers start out as branched mer units, which are then
crosslinked to form a network.
Elastomers
An important class of polymers, which can elongate more than 100% and will
recover their original length quickly and completely (think of elastic bands). They
have important applications as hoses, and seal rings and of course in tires for
transportation vehicles of all kinds. Original elastomer was natural rubber that
was created by Charles Goodyear when he crosslinked the isoprene (natural
rubber from the tree) with sulfur, so that the molecules were tacked together with
primary bonds (a crosslink). This meant they could uncoil on application of load
but the molecules would not slide permanently past one another (as thermoplasts
tend to do). When the load is removed the molecules recoil to their low energy
configuration. These polymers have very low stiffness