STRENGTHENING MECHANISMS

The ability of a metal to deform depends on the ability of

dislocations to move with relative ease under loading
conditions
Restricting dislocation motion will inevitably make the material
stronger, need more force to induce same amount of
deformation !

Mechanisms of strengthening in single-phase metals:

grain-size reduction
solid-solution alloying
strain hardening

Ordinarily, strengthening mechanisms reduces ductility,

why ???

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Strategies for Strengthening Metals

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.

Hall-Petch Equation:
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Adapted from Fig. 8.14, Callister & Rethwisch

3e. (Fig. 8.14 is from A Textbook of Materials
Technology, by Van Vlack, Pearson Education,
Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.)

yield o k y d 1 / 2
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Grain Size Reduction Techniques:

Increase Rate of solidification from the liquid phase.
Perform Plastic deformation followed by an appropriate heat
treatment.
Notes:
Grain size reduction also improves toughness of many
alloys.
Small-angle grain boundaries are not effective in
interfering with the slip process because of the slight
crystallographic misalignment across the boundary.
Boundaries between two different phases are also
impediments to movements of dislocations.
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GRAIN SIZE STRENGTHENING:

AN EXAMPLE
70wt%Cu-30wt%Zn brass alloy

grain size, d (mm)

yield o k y d 1/ 2

20 0

Data:

10 -1

10 -2 5x10 -3

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M(

Adapted from Fig. 7.13,

Callister 6e.
(Fig. 7.13 is adapted from
H. Suzuki, "The Relation
Between the Structure
and Mechanical Properties
of Metals", Vol. II, National
Physical Laboratory
Symposium No. 15, 1963,
p. 524.)

10 0

d l ) eai P
y

150

50
0
0

ky
1
4

12

[grain size (mm)]

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16

-0.5
8

Strategies for Strengthening Metals:

2. Solid Solutions
Impurity atoms distort the lattice & generate stress.
Stress can produce a barrier to dislocation motion.
Smaller substitutional
impurity

Larger substitutional
impurity

C
D

Impurity generates local stress at A

and B that opposes dislocation
motion to the right.
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Impurity generates local stress at C

and D that opposes dislocation
motion to the right.

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 Alloyed metals are usually stronger than

their pure base metals counter parts.
Why ? Interstitial or substitutional impurities in a
solution cause lattice strain, aka distortions in the
lattice
Then ?

Strain field around the impurities interact with dislocation strain

fields and impede dislocation motion.
Impurities tend to diffuse and segregate around the dislocation
core to find atomic sites more suited to their radii. This reduces
the overall strain energy and anchor the dislocation.
Motion of the dislocation core away from the impurities moves
it to a region of lattice where the atomic strains are greater,
where lattice strains due to dislocation is no longer
compensated by the impurity atoms.

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Interactions of the Stress Fields

COMPRESSIVE
TENSILE

TENSILE
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COMPRESSIVE
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Interactions of the Stress Fields

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Stress Concentration at
Dislocations

Adapted from Fig. 8.4,

Callister & Rethwisch 3e.

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Impurity Segregation
Impurities tend to segregate at
energetically favorable areas
around the dislocation core and
partially decrease the overall stress
field generated around the
dislocation core.
However, when stress is applied
more load is needed to move
dislocations with impurity atoms
segregated to its core !

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Strengthening by Alloying
small impurities tend to concentrate at
dislocations
reduce mobility of dislocation increase
strength

Adapted from Fig.

7.17, Callister 7e.

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Strengthening by alloying
large impurities concentrate at dislocations
on low density side

Adapted from Fig.

7.18, Callister 7e.

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Ex: Solid Solution

Strengthening in Copper
Tensile strength & yield strength increase with wt% Ni.
180
Adapted from Fig.
7.16 (a) and (b),
Callister 7e.

400
120

300

60

0 10 20 30 40 50

wt.% Ni, (Concentration C)

Empirical relation:

) aPM
( ht gnert s dl ei Y

) aPM
( ht gnert s eli sneT

200

wt.%Ni, (Concentration C)

y ~ C1/ 2

Alloying increases y and TS.

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0 10 20 30 40 50

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3: Precipitation Strengthening
Hard precipitates are difficult to shear.
Ex: Ceramics in metals (SiC in Iron or Aluminum).
precipitate
Large shear stress needed
to move dislocation toward
precipitate and shear it.

Side View

Top View

Unslipped part of slip plane

S
Slipped part of slip plane

Result:
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1
y ~
S
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Dislocation
advances but
precipitates act as
pinning sites with
spacing S.

Application:
Precipitation Strengthening
Internal wing structure on Boeing 767
Adapted from chapteropening photograph,
Chapter 11, Callister 5e.
(courtesy of G.H.
Narayanan and A.G.
Miller, Boeing Commercial
Airplane Company.)

Aluminum is strengthened with precipitates formed

by alloying.
Adapted from Fig.
11.26, Callister 7e.
(Fig. 11.26 is
courtesy of G.H.
Narayanan and A.G.
Miller, Boeing
Commercial Airplane
Company.)

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1.5m

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4: Cold Work (%CW)

Room temperature deformation.
Common forming operations change the cross
sectional area:
-Forging

force

die
A o blank

-Drawing
die
Ao

-Rolling
Ad

Ao
Adapted from Fig.
11.8, Callister 7e.

-Extrusion
Ao
tensile
force

force

die

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Ad

roll

force
Ad

roll

container

ram

billet

container

Ao Ad
%CW
x 100
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die holder
extrusion

die

Ad

Effects of Stress at Dislocations

Adapted from Fig.
8.5, Callister &
Rethwisch 3e.

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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. 8.20,

Callister & Rethwisch 3e.

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Cold Work Analysis

What is the tensile strength &
ductility after cold working?
ro2 rd2
%CW
x 100 35.6%
2
ro
yield strength (MPa)

800

500

600
300MPa

100
0

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Cu

Do =15.2mm

tensile strength (MPa)

700

300

Copper
Cold
Work

40

% Cold Work
y = 300MPa

60

40
20

400 340MPa
200
0

ductility (%EL)

60

Cu
20

Dd =12.2mm

20

40

60

% Cold Work
TS = 340MPa

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Cu

7%

00

20

40

60

% Cold Work
%EL = 7%

19

- Behavior vs. Temperature

Results for
polycrystalline iron:
800

-200C

600

-100C

) a P M( s s ert S

400

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25C

200
0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Strain
Adapted from Fig. 7.14,
Callister & Rethwisch 3e.

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Coldwork Calculations Solution

If we directly draw to the final diameter what
happens?
Brass
Cold
Work

Do = 0.40 in

Df = 0.30 in

A A
A
o
f
%CW
x 100 1 f x 100
Ao
Ao
2

D2 4

0.30
1 f2 x 100 1
x 100 43.8%

0.40
Do 4

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Coldwork Calc Solution: Cont.

420

540

For %CW = 43.8%

y = 420 MPa
TS = 540 MPa
%EL = 6 < 15

Adapted from Fig. 8.19,

Callister & Rethwisch 3e.

> 380 MPa

This doesnt satisfy criteria what can we do?

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Coldwork Calc Solution: Cont.

15

380

27

12

For TS > 380 MPa

> 12 %CW

For %EL > 15

< 27 %CW

Adapted from Fig. 8.19,

Callister & Rethwisch 3e.

our working range is limited to %CW = 12-27

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23