Dislocation model of high angle grain boundary

 The grain boundary structure contains grain boundary

dislocations. These are not mobile dislocations producing
extensive slip – their chief role is to group together to form a
step or grain boundary ledge

Grain boundary ledges

are effective source of
dislocations

Dislocation model of a
grain boundary
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 Energy of high angle grain boundary

 High angle boundaries are of high surface energy of about

600 – 800 mJ/m2

 Energy of a twin boundary is only about 25 mJ/m2

High energy grain boundaries

serve as preferential site for
solid state reactions such as:
 Diffusion
 Phase Transformation
 Precipitation

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Deformation Behaviour of polycrystalline materials

 Individual grains in polycrystalline materials are not

subjected to a single uni-axial stress system when the
specimen is deformed in tension

 In a polycrystal, continuity must be maintained so that the

boundaries between deforming crystals remain intact.

 the constraints imposed by continuity cause considerable

differences in the deformation between neighbouring grains
and within each grain

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 Deformation Behaviour of polycrystalline materials

 Due to difference in crystallo-

graphic orientations of the
numerous grain, the slip direction
varies from one grain to another

Because of the constrains

imposed by the grain
boundaries, slip occurs on
several slip-systems even
at low strain

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Ashby’s model of deformation of a polycrystal

Polycrystal deform in
macroscopic uniform way,
produces overlap and
void at boundaries

These can be done by

introducing geometrically
necessary dislocations
(GNDs)

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 Slip system requirements

 Five independent slip systems are required for a crystal to

undergo a shape change by slip

 Crystals which do not posses five independent slip systems

are never ductile in polycrystalline form

 Cubic metal satisfy this requirement

hence highly ductile

 HCP metal does not satisfy this

requirement at room temperature
hence have very poor ductility

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 Grain boundary sliding

 At T >0.5Tm, deformation can occur by sliding along grain

boundaries

Temperature
Increases tendency for
Strain rate Grain boundary sliding

Equicohesive Temperature

 Above equicohesive temperature – grain boundary region is

weaker than grain – grain boundary sliding is predominant

 Below equicohesive temperature – grain boundary region is

stronger than grain – strength increases with finer grain size
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Strengthening from high angle grain boundaries

Dislocation piled-up at the

grain boundaries
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 Hall-Petch relation

i = Friction stress

k = Locking parameter

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 Dislocation pile-up at grain boundaries

Number of dislocation piled-up

When the source is located at center

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 Hall-Petch relation…..continues

Critical stress to slip past the barrier

Rearranging

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 Hall-Petch relation…..can we apply it to smallest
possible grain sized materials??

 If Hall-Petch relation is extrapolated to the smallest grain size

imaginable (~4 nm), it would predict strength levels close to
the theoretical shear strength

 Such an extrapolation is in error

 Hall-Petch relation is valid only for large pile-up containing

more than 50 dislocations

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 Low Angle Grain Boundaries

 A low angle boundary or sub-boundary can be represented

by an array of dislocations

 The simplest such boundary is the symmetrical tilt boundary

 The boundary consists of a wall of parallel edge dislocation

aligned perpendicular to the slip plane.

symmetrical tilt boundary

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 Low Angle Grain Boundaries

If the spacing of the dislocations of Burgers vector b in the

boundary is h, then the crystals on either side of the
boundary are misoriented by a small angle where

  b/d

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 Sub-grain

 Subgrains are low-angle boundaries in which the difference

in orientation across the boundary is few degrees

 They etch less readily than grain boundaries

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 Polygonization

Single crystal is bent Followed by annealing

Schematic Movement of dislocations to produce polygonization

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 Strengthening from low angle boundaries

Effect of substructure of low angle boundaries on stress-strain

curve of SAE 1020 steel
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Yield Point Phenomenon
&
Strain Ageing

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 Yield Point Phenomenon

0 – General yield stress

s – Stress to operate dislocation
i – Friction stress

Carbon or nitrogen atoms in iron readily diffuse to the position of

minimum energy just below the extra plane of atoms in a positive edge
dislocation
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 Strain Ageing

 Strain ageing is a type of behavior, usually associated with

yield point phenomenon in which the strength of a metal is
increased and the ductility is decreased on heating at relatively
low temperature after cold working

Region A – Original
material strained through
yield point

Region B – Immediately
retested after reaching
point X

Region C – Reappearance
and increase in yield
point after ageing at 400K
Stress-strain curves for low-carbon
steel showing strain aging.
 Strain Ageing

 The reappearance of the yield point is due to the diffusion of

carbon and nitrogen atoms to the dislocation during the ageing

 Nitrogen plays a more important role in strain ageing than

carbon because

 It has a higher solubility

 Higher diffusion coefficient
 produce less complete precipitation during slow cooling

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 Strain Ageing & “Stretcher strains”

 The reappearance of the yield point could lead to surfacing

markings or ‘stretcher strains’ due to localized heterogeneous
deformation during deep-drawing

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 How “Stretcher strains” can be controlled?

 This can be controlled by:

 Lowering carbon content
 Adding carbide forming elements (like Ti, V, Al etc)
 ‘Skin-pass’ rolling

“Skin pass rolling” to eliminate stretcher strains

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