Primary Metallic Crystalline Structures

(BCC, FCC, HCP)

As pointed out on the previous page, there are 14 different types of crystal
unit cell structures or lattices are found in nature. However most metals and
many other solids have unit cell structures described as body center cubic
(bcc), face centered cubic (fcc) or Hexagonal Close Packed (hcp). Since
these structures are most common, they will be discussed in more detail.

Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) Structure

The body-centered cubic unit cell has atoms at each of the eight corners of a cube (like the cubic
unit cell) plus one atom in the center of the cube (left image below). Each of the corner atoms is
the corner of another cube so the corner atoms are shared among eight unit cells. It is said to
have a coordination number of 8. The bcc unit cell consists of a net total of two atoms; one in the
center and eight eighths from corners atoms as shown in the middle image below (middle image
below). The image below highlights a unit cell in a larger section of the lattice.

The bcc arrangement does not allow the atoms to pack together as closely as the fcc or hcp
arrangements. The bcc structure is often the high temperature form of metals that are close-
packed at lower temperatures. The volume of atoms in a cell per the total volume of a cell is
called the packing factor. The bcc unit cell has a packing factor of 0.68.

Some of the materials that have a bcc structure include lithium, sodium, potassium, chromium,
barium, vanadium, alpha-iron and tungsten. Metals which have a bcc structure are usually harder
and less malleable than close-packed metals such as gold. When the metal is deformed, the
planes of atoms must slip over each other, and this is more difficult in the bcc structure. It should
be noted that there are other important mechanisms for hardening materials, such as introducing
impurities or defects which make slipping more difficult. These hardening mechanisms will be
discussed latter.

Face Centered Cubic (FCC) Structure

The face centered cubic structure has atoms located at each of the corners and the centers of all
the cubic faces (left image below). Each of the corner atoms is the corner of another cube so the
corner atoms are shared among eight unit cells. Additionally, each of its six face centered atoms
is shared with an adjacent atom. Since 12 of its atoms are shared, it is said to have a coordination
number of 12. The fcc unit cell consists of a net total of four atoms; eight eighths from corners
atoms and six halves of the face atoms as shown in the middle image above. The image below
highlights a unit cell in a larger section of the lattice.

In the fcc structure (and the hcp structure) the atoms can pack closer together than they can in the
bcc structure. The atoms from one layer nest themselves in the empty space between the atoms of
the adjacent layer. To picture packing arrangement, imagine a box filled with a layer of balls that
are aligned in columns and rows. When a few additional balls are tossed in the box, they will not
balance directly on top of the balls in the first layer but instead will come to rest in the pocket
created between four balls of the bottom layer. As more balls are added they will pack together to
fill up all the pockets. The packing factor (the volume of atoms in a cell per the total volume of a
cell) is 0.74 for fcc crystals. Some of the metals that have the fcc structure include aluminum,
copper, gold, iridium, lead, nickel, platinum and silver.

Hexagonal Close Packed (HPC) Structure

Another common close packed structure is the hexagonal close pack. The hexagonal structure of
alternating layers is shifted so its atoms are aligned to the gaps of the preceding layer. The atoms
from one layer nest themselves in the empty space between the atoms of the adjacent layer just
like in the fcc structure. However, instead of being a cubic structure, the pattern is hexagonal.
(See image below.) The difference between the HPC and FCC structure is discussed later in this
section.
The hcp structure has three layers of atoms. In each the top and bottom layer, there are six atoms
that arrange themselves in the shape of a hexagon and a seventh atom that sits in the middle of
the hexagon. The middle layer has three atoms nestle in the triangular "grooves" of the top and
bottom plane. Note that there are six of these "grooves" surrounding each atom in the hexagonal
plane, but only three of them can be filled by atoms.

As shown in the middle image above, there are six atoms in the hcp unit cell. Each of the 12
atoms in the corners of the top and bottom layers contribute 1/6 atom to the unit cell, the two
atoms in the center of the hexagon of both the top and bottom layers each contribute ½ atom and
each of the three atom in the middle layer contribute 1 atom. The image on the right above
attempts to show several hcp unit cells in a larger lattice.

The coordination number of the atoms in this structure is 12. There are six nearest neighbors in
the same close packed layer, three in the layer above and three in the layer below. The packing
factor is 0.74, which is the same as the fcc unit cell. The hcp structure is very common for
elemental metals and some examples include beryllium, cadmium, magnesium, titanium, zinc
and zirconium.
The table below shows the stable room temperature crystal structures for several elemental metals.

Metal Crystal Structure Atomic Radius (nm)

Aluminum FCC 0.1431
Cadmium HCP 0.1490
Chromium BCC 0.1249
Cobalt HCP 0.1253
Copper FCC 0.1278
Gold FCC 0.1442
Iron (Alpha) BCC 0.1241
Lead FCC 0.1750
Magnesium HCP 0.1599
Molybdenum BCC 0.1363
Nickel FCC 0.1246
Platinum FCC 0.1387
Silver FCC 0.1445
Tantalum BCC 0.1430
Titanium (Alpha) HCP 0.1445
Tungsten BCC 0.1371
Zinc HCP 0.1332

A nanometer (nm) equals 10-9 meter or 10 Angstrom units.

Solidification

The crystallization of a large amount of material from a single point of nucleation results in a
single crystal. In engineering materials, single crystals are produced only under carefully
controlled conditions. The expense of producing single crystal materials is only justified for
special applications, such as turbine engine blades, solar cells, and piezoelectric materials.
Normally when a material begins to solidify, multiple crystals begin to grow in the liquid and a
polycrystalline (more than one crystal) solid forms.

The moment a crystal begins to grow is know as nucleation and the point where it occurs is the
nucleation point. At the solidification temperature, atoms of a liquid, such as melted metal, begin
to bond together at the nucleation points and start to form crystals. The final sizes of the
individual crystals depend on the number of nucleation points. The crystals increase in size by
the progressive addition of atoms and grow until they impinge upon adjacent growing crystal.
a) Nucleation of crystals, b) crystal growth, c) irregular grains form as crystals grow together, d)
grain boundaries as seen in a microscope.

In engineering materials, a crystal is usually referred to as a grain. A grain is merely a crystal

without smooth faces because its growth was impeded by contact with another grain or a
boundary surface. The interface formed between grains is called a grain boundary. The atoms
between the grains (at the grain boundaries) have no crystalline structure and are said to be
disordered.

Grains are sometimes large enough to be visible under an ordinary light microscope or even to
the unaided eye. The spangles that are seen on newly galvanized metals are grains. Rapid cooling
generally results in more nucleation points and smaller grains (a fine grain structure). Slow
cooling generally results in larger grains which will have lower strength, hardness and ductility.

Dendrites
In metals, the crystals that form in the liquid during
freezing generally follow a pattern consisting of a main
branch with many appendages. A crystal with this
morphology slightly resembles a pine tree and is called a
dendrite, which means branching. The formation of
dendrites occurs because crystals grow in defined planes
due to the crystal lattice they create. The figure to the right
shows how a cubic crystal can grow in a melt in three
dimensions, which correspond to the six faces of the cube.
For clarity of illustration, the adding of unit cells with continued solidification from the six faces
is shown simply as lines. Secondary dendrite arms branch off the primary arm, and tertiary arms
off the secondary arms and etcetera.

During freezing of a polycrystalline material, many

dendritic crystals form and grow until they eventually
become large enough to impinge upon each other.
Eventually, the interdendriticspaces between the dendrite
arms crystallize to yield a more regular crystal. The
original dendritic pattern may not be apparent when
examining the microstructure of a material. However,
dendrites can often be seen in solidification voids that
sometimes occur in castings or welds, as shown to the
right..

Shrinkage
Most materials contract or shrink during solidification and
cooling. Shrinkage is the result of:

 Contraction of the liquid as it cools prior to its

solidification
 Contraction during phase change from a liquid to solid
 Contraction of the solid as it continues to cool to ambient temperature.

Shrinkage can sometimes cause cracking to occur in component as it solidifies. Since the coolest
area of a volume of liquid is where it contacts a mold or die, solidification usually begins first at
this surface. As the crystals grow inward, the material continues to shrink. If the solid surface is
too rigid and will not deform to accommodate the internal shrinkage, the stresses can become
high enough to exceed the tensile strength of the material and cause a crack to form. Shrinkage
cavitation sometimes occurs because as a material solidifies inward, shrinkage occurred to such
an extent that there is not enough atoms present to fill the available space and a void is left.

Elastic/Plastic Deformation

When a sufficient load is applied to a metal or other structural material, it will cause the material
to change shape. This change in shape is called deformation. A temporary shape change that is
self-reversing after the force is removed, so that the object returns to its original shape, is called
elastic deformation. In other words, elastic deformation is a change in shape of a material at low
stress that is recoverable after the stress is removed. This type of deformation involves stretching
of the bonds, but the atoms do not slip past each other.
When the stress is sufficient to permanently
deform the metal, it is called plastic
deformation. As discussed in the section on
crystal defects, plastic deformation
involves the breaking of a limited number
of atomic bonds by the movement of
dislocations. Recall that the force needed to
break the bonds of all the atoms in a crystal
plane all at once is very great. However, the
movement of dislocations allows atoms in
crystal planes to slip past one another at a
much lower stress levels. Since the energy
required to move is lowest along the
densest planes of atoms, dislocations have a
preferred direction of travel within a grain
of the material. This results in slip that
occurs along parallel planes within the
grain. These parallel slip planes group
together to form slip bands, which can be
seen with an optical microscope. A slip
band appears as a single line under the
microscope, but it is in fact made up of
closely spaced parallel slip planes as shown
in the image

Diffusion

Diffusion is the migration of atoms from a region of high concentration to

a region of low concentration. In a homogeneous material, atoms are
routinely moving around but the movement is random (i.e. there is always
an equal number of atoms moving in all directions). In an inhomogeneous
material, all the atoms are moving near randomly, but there is a migration
of atoms to areas where their concentrations are lower. In other words,
there is a net diffusion.

Atom diffusion can occur by the motion of host or substitutional atoms to

vacancies (vacancy diffusion), or interstitial impurities atoms to different
interstitial positions (interstitial diffusion). In order to move, an atom
must overcome the bond energy due to nearby atoms. This is more easily
achieved at high temperatures when the atoms are vibrating strongly.
Carburizing, which will be discussed later, is an example of diffusion is
used.
 Property Modification

Many structural metals undergo some special treatment to modify their properties so that they
will perform better for their intended use. This treatment can include mechanical working, such
as rolling or forging, alloying and/or thermal treatments. Consider aluminum as an example.
Commercially pure aluminum (1100) has a tensile strength of around 13,000 psi, which limits its
usefulness in structural applications. However, by cold-working aluminum, its strength can be
approximately doubled. Also, strength increases are obtained by adding alloying metals such as
manganese, silicon, copper, magnesium and zinc. Further, many aluminum alloys are
strengthened by heat treatment. Some heat-treatable aluminum alloys obtain tensile strengths that
can exceed 100,000 psi.

Strengthening/Hardening Mechanisms

As discussed in the previous section, the ability of a crystalline material to plastically deform
largely depends on the ability for dislocation to move within a material. Therefore, impeding the
movement of dislocations will result in the strengthening of the material. There are a number of
ways to impede dislocation movement, which include:

 controlling the grain size (reducing continuity of atomic planes)

 strain hardening (creating and tangling dislocations)
 alloying (introducing point defects and more grains to pin dislocation)

Control of Grain Size

The size of the grains within a material also has an effect
on the strength of the material. The boundary between
grains acts as a barrier to dislocation movement and the
resulting slip because adjacent grains have different
orientations. Since the atom alignment is different and slip
planes are discontinuous between grains. The smaller the
grains, the shorter the distance atoms can move along a
particular slip plane. Therefore, smaller grains improve the
strength of a material. The size and number of grains within a material is controlled by the rate of
solidification from the liquid phase.

Strain Hardening
Strain hardening (also called work-hardening or cold-working) is the process of making a metal
harder and stronger through plastic deformation. When a metal is plastically deformed,
dislocations move and additional dislocations are generated. The more dislocations within a
material, the more they will interact and become pinned or tangled. This will result in a decrease
in the mobility of the dislocations and a strengthening of the material. This type of strengthening
is commonly called cold-working. It is called cold-working because the plastic deformation must
occurs at a temperature low enough that atoms cannot rearrange themselves. When a metal is
worked at higher temperatures (hot-working) the dislocations can rearrange and little
strengthening is achieved.

Strain hardening can be easily demonstrated with piece of wire or a paper clip. Bend a straight
section back and forth several times. Notice that it is more difficult to bend the metal at the same
place. In the strain hardened area dislocations have formed and become tangled, increasing the
strength of the material. Continued bending will eventually cause the wire to break at the bend
due to fatigue cracking. (After a large number of bending cycles, dislocations form structures
called Persistent Slip Bands (PSB). PSBs are basically tiny areas where the dislocations have
piled up and moved the material surface out leave steps in the surface that act as stress risers or
crack initiation points.)

It should be understood, however, that increasing the

strength by cold-working will also result in a reduction in
ductility. The graph to the right shows the yield strength
and the percent elongation as a function of percent cold-
work for a few example materials. Notice that for each
material, a small amount of cold-working results in a
significant reduction in ductility.

Effects of Elevated Temperature on Strain Hardened

Materials
When strain hardened materials are exposed to elevated
temperatures, the strengthening that resulted from the plastic deformation can be lost. This can
be a bad thing if the strengthening is needed to support a load. However, strengthening due to
strain hardening is not always desirable, especially if the material is being heavily formed since
ductility will be lowered.

Heat treatment can be used to remove the effects of strain hardening. Three things can occur
during heat treatment:

1. Recovery
2. Recrystallization
3. Grain growth

Recovery
When a stain hardened material is held at
an elevated temperature an increase in
atomic diffusion occurs that relieves
some of the internal strain energy.
Remember that atoms are not fixed in
position but can move around when they
have enough energy to break their bonds.
Diffusion increases rapidly with rising
temperature and this allows atoms in severely strained regions to move to unstrained positions.
In other words, atoms are freer to move around and recover a normal position in the lattice
structure. This is known as the recovery phase and it results in an adjustment of strain on a
microscopic scale. Internal residual stresses are lowered due to a reduction in the dislocation
density and a movement of dislocation to lower-energy positions. The tangles of dislocations
condense into sharp two-dimensional boundaries and the dislocation density within these areas
decrease. These areas are called subgrains. There is no appreciable reduction in the strength and
hardness of the material but corrosion resistance often improves.

Recrystallization
At a higher temperature, new, strain-free grains nucleate and grow inside the old distorted grains
and at the grain boundaries. These new grains grow to replace the deformed grains produced by
the strain hardening. With recrystallization, the mechanical properties return to their original
weaker and more ductile states. Recrystallization depends on the temperature, the amount of time
at this temperature and also the amount of strain hardening that the material experienced. The
more strain hardening, the lower the temperature will be at which recrystallization occurs. Also,
a minimum amount (typically 2-20%) of cold work is necessary for any amount of
recrystallization to occur. The size the new grains is also partially dependant on the amount of
strain hardening. The greater the stain hardening, the more nuclei for the new grains, and the
resulting grain size will be smaller (at least initially).

Grain Growth
If a specimen is left at the high temperature beyond the time needed for complete
recrystallization, the grains begin to grow in size. This occurs because diffusion occurs across the
grain boundaries and larger grains have less grain boundary surface area per unit of volume.
Therefore, the larger grains lose fewer atoms and grow at the expense of the smaller grains.
Larger grains will reduce the strength and toughness of the material.

The major objectives of the different kinds of thermal treatments are:

1. Soften the material for improved workability.

2. Increase the strength or hardness of the material.
3. Increase the toughness or resistance to fracture of the material.
4. Stabilize mechanical or physical properties against changes that might occur during
exposure to service environments.
5. Insure part dimensional stability.
6. Relieve undesirable residual stresses induced during part fabrication.

Common Heat Treating Processes

A few of the more common terms used in heat treating are introduced below. It should be noted
that not all of the term are applicable to all alloys.
Age Hardening is a relatively low-temperature heat treatment process that strengthens a material
by causing the precipitation of components or phases of alloy from a super-saturated solid
solution condition.

Annealing is a softening process in which metals are heated and then allowed to cool slowly.
The purpose of annealing is to soften the material for improve machinability, formability, and
sometimes to control magnetic properties.

Normallizing is much like annealing, but the cooling process is much faster. This results in
increased strength but less ductility in the metal. Its purpose is to refine grain structure, produce
more uniform mechanical properties, and sometimes to relieve internal and surface stresses.

Precipitation Heat Treatment is the three step process of solution treating, quenching, and age
hardening to increase the strength or hardness of an alloy.

Solution Heat Treatment involves heating the material to a temperature that puts all the
elements in solid solution and then cooling very rapidly to freeze the atoms in place.

Stress Relieving is a low temperature heat treat process that is used to reduce the level of
residual stresses in a material.

Tempering involves gently heating a hardened metal and allowing it to cool slowly will produce
a metal that is still hard but also less brittle. This process is known as tempering.

Quenching is the rapid cooling of a hot material. The medium used to quench the material can
vary from forced air, oil, water and others. Many steels are hardened by heating and quenching.
Quenching results in a metal that is very hard but also brittle

Metallic Bonding

A common characteristic of metallic elements is they contain only one to

three electrons in the outer shell. When an element has only one, two or
three valence electrons (i.e. electrons in the outer shell), the bond
between these electrons and the nucleus is relatively weak. So, for
example, when aluminum atoms are grouped together in a block of
metal, the outer electrons leave individual atoms to become part of
common “electron cloud.” In this arrangement, the valence electrons
have considerable mobility and are able to conduct heat and electricity
easily. Also, the delocalized nature of the bonds, make it possible for the
atoms to slide past each other when the metal is deformed instead of fracturing like glass or other
brittle material.
Since the aluminum atoms lose two electrons, they end up having a positive charge and are
designated Al3+ ions (cations). These ions repel each other but are held together in the block
because the negative electrons are attracted to the positively charged ions. A result of the sharing
of electrons is the cations arrange themselves in a regular pattern. This regular pattern of atoms is
the crystalline structure of metals. In the crystal lattice, atoms are packed closely together to
maximize the strength of the bonds. An actual piece of metal consists of many tiny crystals
called grains that touch at grain boundaries.
 Structure of Materials

It should be clear that all matter is made of atoms. From the periodic table, it can be seen that
there are only about 100 different kinds of atoms in the entire Universe. These same 100 atoms
form thousands of different substances ranging from the air we breathe to the metal used to
support tall buildings. Metals behave differently than ceramics, and ceramics behave differently
than polymers. The properties of matter depend on which atoms are used and how they are
bonded together.