STRENGTHENING MECHANISM

IN METALS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Describe edge and screw dislocation motion from an atomic

perspectives
• Describe how plastic deformation occurs by the motion of edge and
screw dislocations in response to applied shear stress
• Define slip system and example
• Describe the effect of plastic deformation on the grain structure
• Explain how grain boundaries impede dislocation motion
• Describe and explain solid-solution strengthening
• Describe and explain the phenomenon of strain hardening in terms
of dislocations and strain field interactions
• Describe recystallization on microstructure and its effect on
mechanical properties
• Describe the phenomenon of grain growth

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 DISLOCATIONS
• Edge Dislocation
• Screw Dislocation
• Edge dislocation :
– Burger’s vector perpendicular to
the dislocation line
– Positive edge dislocation : extra
plane of atoms above the slip
plane
– Negative edge dislocation : extra
plane of atoms below the slip
plane
– Slip or glide in the direction
perpendicular to its length
– Can move by climbing at high
temperature
• Screw Dislocation :
– Burger’s vector parallel to the
dislocation line
– Positive screw dislocation :
clockwise rotation
– Negative screw dislocation :
counter clockwise rotation
– Does not have a preferred slip
plane as an edge dislocation
– Can not moved by climbing
• All metals and alloys contain some
dislocations that were introduced
during solidification, during plastic
deformation, as a consequence of
thermal stress that result from
rapid coling
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Movement of Edge Dislocation

Characteristics of Dislocations

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 SLIP SYSTEMS

• Slip Plane : preferred plane for

dislocation motion
• Slip Direction : preferred
direction of dislocation
movement
• Slip System : the combination
of slip plane and slip direction.

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 SLIP IN SINGLE CRYSTAL

• Resolved Shear Stress, τR

• τR = σ cos φ cos λ

• At preferable slip system :

• (τR)max = σ (cos φ cos λ)max

• Citical resolved shear stress

(CRSS) : the minimum shear
stress required to initiate slip,
property of material.

• Yielding when : τR (max) = τ CRSS

SLIP IN SINGLE CRYSTAL

• Yield Strength :

τ CRSS
σy =
(cos φ cos λ ) max

• Minimum stress necessary to

introduce yielding occurs when
a single crystal is oriented
such that φ = λ =45o :

σy = 2 τCRSS Slip in single crystal occurs along a

number of equivalent and most favorably
oriented planes and directions at various
position along the specimen length

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 Deformation of Polycrystalline Materials

• Deformation modes :
– Slip
– Twinning

Slip and twinning in single crystal

Mechanical twinning occurs in metals that have BCC and HCP crystal
structure, at low temperatures, and at high rates of loading (shock loading),
under which that the slip process is restricted (limited slip system)

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 Strengthening Mechanism in Metals

• Plastic deformation is corresponds to the movement a large number

of dislocations
• Strengthening mechanism : restricted or hindering the dislocation
motion

• Strengthening Mechanism Methods :

– Solid solution strengthening
– Strain hardening
– Grain size strengthening
– Phase Strengthening
– Particle Hardening
– Martensite strengthening
– Fiber Strengthening

Solid Solution Strengthening

• Pure metal is weaker than • Lattice strain field interaction

alloys
• Addition of alloying element to
increase the strength
• Type of alloying elements :
– Interstitial (non-metals) : C,
N, O, H, B
– Substitutional (metals)
• Alloying elements imposed
lattice strain on the
surrounding host atoms
between dislocations and the
alloying atoms will restrict the
dislocation movement.
• Interstitial atom exerts tensile
strains on the surrounding
crystal lattice
• Substitutional atoms
imposes compressive strains
in its vicinity

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 Strain Hardening

• Hot working/deformation : • Strain hardening during tensile

deformation above test.
recrystallization temperature
• Dislocation interactions,
• Cold working/deformation : dislocation multiplications,
deformation below recrystallization formation of new dislocations

• Strain hardening : ductile metals • Increasing number of dislocation

becomes harder and stronger as it density
is plastically deformed.

• Most metals strain harden at room σ o = σ i + αGbρ 0.5

temperature
• Annealed metal, ρ = 106 – 1010 (m-2)

• Severely cold worked : 1012 (m-2)

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 Annealing of Cold-Worked Metals

• Annealing : to restore ductility of a metal that have been severely

strain-hardened

• There are three stages : recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth

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• Recovery : the restoration of the physical properties of the cold-
worked metal without any observable change in microstructure
– Electrical conductivity and thermal conductivities increase rapidly toward
the annealed value
– Lattice strain is reduced substantially

• Recrystallization : the replacement of the cold-worked structure by a

set of strain-free grains.
– Can be detected by metallographic method
– Decrease in hardness or strength
– Increase in ductility
– Density of dislocations decreases

• Grain growth : the increase in size of strain-free grain due to heating

at a temperature greater than that required to cause recrystallization

Microstructure of
recrystallized Brass (33%
cold worked) :
a. 4 s at 580 oC
b. 8s at 580 oC (complete
recrystallization)
c. 15 min. at 580 oC (grain
a b growth)
d. 10 min. at 700 oC (grain
growth)

c d

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• Factors that influence recrystallization behavior :
– A minimum amount of deformation is needed to cause recrystallization
– The smaller the degree of deformation, the higher the temperature
required to cause recrystallization
– Increasing the annealing time decreases the recrystallization
temperature
– The final grain size depends on the degree of deformation and the
annealing temperature
– The larger the original grain size, the greater the amount of cold-work
required to produce an equivalent recrystallization temperature
– The amount of deformation required to produce equivalent
recrystallization behavior increases with increased temperature of
working
– For a given reduction in cross section, different metalworking
processes, such as rolling, drawing, etc., produce somewhat different
effective deformation; hence identical recrystallization behavior may not
be obtained

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 Grain growth curve for Brass

Grain Size Strengthening

• Grain boundaries has high energy; preferential sites for solid state
reactions (diffusion, phase transformation, and precipitation
reaction)
• Grain boundaries strengthening (Hall-Petch equation)

σ o = σ i + kD −0.5
• Two models to explain the effect of grain boundaries :
– Dislocation pile-up at grain boundaries
– Dislocation density is an inverse function of the grain size :

σ o = σ i + kD −0.5 = σ i + αGbρ 0.5

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Dislocation Pile-Up at Grain Boundaries

Strain = 0.15% Strain = 1.5%

Dislocation activity at grain boundaries of AISI 304 Stainless Steel

Dislocation Density

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ASTM GRAIN SIZE

N* = 2(n-1)
N* = grain/in2
n = ASTM grain-size
number

ASTM GRAIN SIZE

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 Phase Strengthening

• Many commercial alloys contain a heterogeneous

microstructure consisting of two or more metallurgical
phases

• Assuming strain in each phase is equal :

σ avg = f1σ 1 + f 2σ 2

f1 + f2 = 1

Particle Hardening

• Precipitation hardening :
– Solution treatment
– Quenching
– Aging

• Dispersion Hardening :
– Mixing of powder metal and second-phase particles (oxides,
carbides, nitrides, borides, etc.)
– Hot consolidation

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 Precipitation Hardening

• The alloy system must obey

the following requisites :
– Form a supersaturated solid
solution at high temperature
– Reject a finely dispersed
precipitate during aging
(phase diagram must show a
declining solvus line)

• Example : Al-Cu system.

• Aging sequence :
supersaturated ss Æ
transition structure Æ
aged phase

α+L
α

α+θ

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Dislocation Bowing Dislocation Cutting

Orowan Stress :
τ = (Gb/x)

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 MARTENSITE STRENGTHENING

• Rapid cooling of austenite in

steel to produce martensite
phase

• High strength of martensite :

there are many strong barriers
to dislocation motion in this
structure
– Fine plate structure with an
internal structure of parallel
twin
– High dislocation density in
martensite (1010 to 1012
dislocation/cm2)

C Si S P Mn Cr

Chemical Composition 0.331 0.158 0.008 0.015 0.947 0.235

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 Low C (lath) Medium C (plate) Fe-Ni (plate)

Fiber Strengthening

• Isostrain, elastic condition, • Elastic behavior, isostress

longitudinal loading :
condition, transverse
loading :
• Force : Fc = Ff + Fm

σcAc = σmAm + σfAf σc = σm = σf

σc = σm (Am/Ac) + σf (Af/Ac) εc = εmVm + εfVf

σc = σm Vm + σf Vf 1 Vm V f
= +
Ec E m E f
Ec = EmVm + EfVf

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a. Continuous and aligned
fiber
b. Discontinuous and
aligned fiber
c. Discontinuous and
randomly oriented fiber

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