CHAPTER 7:

DISLOCATIONS AND STRENGTHENING

ISSUES TO ADDRESS...
Why are dislocations observed primarily in metals
and alloys?
How are strength and dislocation motion related?
How do we increase strength?
How can heating change strength and other properties?

Chapter 7- 1

DISLOCATIONS & MATERIALS CLASSES

Metals: Disl. motion easier.
-non-directional bonding
-close-packed directions
for slip.
electron cloud

+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +

ion cores

Covalent Ceramics
(Si, diamond): Motion hard.
-directional (angular) bonding
Ionic Ceramics (NaCl):
Motion hard.
-need to avoid ++ and -neighbors.

Chapter 7- 2

DISLOCATION MOTION
Produces plastic deformation,
Depends on incrementally
breaking
Ifbonds.
dislocations don't move,
deformation doesn't happen!

Plastically
stretched
zinc
single
crystal.

Chapter 7- 3

STRESS field around dislocations

BondsareCompressed

BondsareStretched

WHYisthereastressfield?
Atomstrytorelaxbytryingtoachieve
theirpositionsforthecaseiftherewas
notadislocationinthevicinity!
Chapter 7-

Stress fields of dislocations interacting !

The strain fields around
dislocations interact with
each other. Hence, they
exert force on each other.
Edge dislocations, when
they are in the same plane,
they repel each other if they
have the same
sign (direction of the
Burgers vector). WHY ?
They can attract and
annihilate if they have
opposite signs. PROVE !

Chapter 7-

STRATEGIES FOR STRENGTHENING:

1. REDUCE the GRAIN SIZE
Grain boundaries
are
slip plane
barriers to slip.
Smaller grain size:
more barriers to slip,
higher strength.

HallPetchEquation:

grain A

yield o k yd1/2
Chapter 7- 7

GRAIN SIZE STRENGTHENING:

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

yield o k yd1/2
grain size, d (mm)

y ie ld (M Pa )

200

0.75mm

10-1

10-2 5x10-3

150
ky

100
1

50
0
0

12 16

[grain size (mm)]-0.5

Chapter 7- 8

2. SOLID SOLUTION STRENGTHENING

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.
Chapter 7-

 Impurity atoms distort the lattice & generate

stress.
Stress can produce a barrier to dislocation
Smaller substitutional
Larger substitutional
motion.
impurity

impurity

C
B

Impurity generates local shear

at A and B that opposes disl
motion to the right.

D
Impurity generates local shear
at C and D that opposes disl
motion to the right.

Chapter 7- 11

Interactions of the Stress Fields

COMPRESSIVE
TENSILE

TENSILE

Chapter 7COMPRESSIVE

Interactions of the Stress Fields

Chapter 7-

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 !
Chapter 7-

Strengthening by Alloying
impuritiestendtoconcentrateatdislocationsto
reducemobilityofdislocationincreasestrength

Chapter 7-

400
300
200
0 10 20 30 40 50
wt. %Ni, (Concentration C)

Yie ld s tre n g th (M Pa )

Te n sile stre n g th (M Pa )

SOLID SOLUTION STRENGTHENING

IN COPPER : AN EXAMPLE
180
120

Alloying increases y and TS.

60

0 10 20 30 40 50
wt. %Ni, (Concentration

y ~C

1/2
Chapter 7- 12

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

1
y ~
S

Dislocation
advances but
precipitates act as
pinning sites with
spacing S.

Chapter 7- 13

SIMULATION:
PRECIPITATION STRENGTHENING
View onto slip plane of Nimonic PE16
Precipitate volume fraction: 10%
Average precipitate size: 64 b (b = 1 atomic slip
distance)

Chapter 7- 14

APPLICATION:
PRECIPITATION STRENGTHENING
Internal wing
structure on
Boeing 767

Aluminum is
strengthened with
precipitates formed
by alloying.
1.5m
Chapter 7- 15

4. COLD WORK (%CW)

Ao Ad
%CW
x100
Ao

Room temperature
deformation.
-Forging

-Drawing

force

die

die
A o blank

Ad Ao

Ad

tensile
force

die
force

-Rolling
roll
Ao
roll

-Extrusion

Ao
Ad

force

container

ram

billet

container

die holder
extrusion
Ad
die
Chapter 7- 16

DISLOCATIONS DURING COLD WORK

Ti alloy after cold
working:

Dislocations entangle
with one another
during cold work.
Hence Dislocation
motion becomes more
difficult.
Dislocation density (d)
Carefully prepared sample:

0.9 m

d ~ 103 mm/mm3
Heavily deformed sample:
d ~ 1010 mm/mm3
Chapter 7- 17

DISLOCATION-DISLOCATION TRAPPING
Dislocation generate stress.
This traps other dislocations.

Red dislocation
generates shear at
pts A and B that
opposes motion of
green disl. from
left to right.

Chapter 7- 20

Chapter 7-

Stress

IMPACT OF COLD WORK

Yield strength (y)
increases.
Tensile strength (TS)
increases.
Ductility (%EL or
%AR)
decreases.
Chapter 7- 21

Temperature Dependence of

S tre s s (M P a )

800
600

-200C

polycrystalline iron
-100C

400

25C

200
0
0

0.1

0.2

With increasing test

temperature:
y and TS decrease.
%EL increases
Beacause, vacancies
help dislocations past
obstacles.

0.3

Strain

0.4

0.5
3 . disl. glides past obstacle

2. vacancies
replace
atoms on the
disl. half
plane

obstacle

1. disl. trapped
by obstacle
Chapter 7- 23

ANNEALING
SOFTENNG OF COLD WORK METALS by HEATING

3
Annealing
stages

100

300

600

500

700 60

tensile strength

50

500

40
30

400
ductility
300 R
ec

ov

Re
c
er
y

20

ry
st
a

lli

Gr
ai
n

za
t

io
n

ductility (%EL)

tensile strength (MPa)

Effect of 1 hour heating on mechanical

propertiesAnnealing Temperature (C)

Gr
ow
th
Chapter 7- 24

RECOVERY
(Annihilation of dislocations and vacancies)
Scenario 1
Results from
diffusion

extra half-plane
of atoms
atoms
diffuse
to regions
of tension
extra half-plane
of atoms

Dislocations
annihilate
and form
a perfect
atomic
plane.

Scenario 2
3. Climbed disl. can now
move on new slip plane
2. grey atoms leave by
vacancy diffusion
allowing disl. to climb
1. dislocation blocked;
cant move to the right

R
4. opposite dislocations
meet and annihilate
Obstacle dislocation

Chapter 7-

RECRYSTALLIZATION
New crystals nucleate and grow to consume the coldworked structure, i.e., dislocations due to cold work will
disappear.
0.6 mm

33% cold worked

brass

0.6 mm

New crystals
nucleate after 3 sec.Chapter 7- 26
at 580C.

FURTHER RECRYSTALLIZATION
All cold-worked crystals are consumed.
0.6 mm

After 4
seconds

0.6 mm

After 8
seconds

Chapter 7- 27

Rate of Recrystallization
E
logR logt logR0
kT
B
logt C
T
note : R 1 / t

start

1
TR

50%

finish

log t
HotworkaboveTR
ColdworkbelowTR
Smallergrains
strongeratlowtemperature
weakerathightemperature

NoStrainhardeningoccurs

TR~0.3Tm0.7Tm
TRdependson%CW Chapter 7Decreasewithincreasing%CW

GRAIN GROWTH
At longer times, larger grains consume smaller ones.
To reduce the Grain boundary area (and therefore energy)
0.6 mm

0.6 mm

After 8 s,
580C

After 15 min,
580C

n~ 2
grain diam.
at time t.

d d Kt
n

n
o

elapsed time
coefficient dependent
on material and T. Chapter 7- 28

SUMMARY
Dislocations are observed primarily in metals and
alloys.
Strength is increased by making dislocation motion
difficult.
Particular ways to increase strength are to:
--decrease grain size
--solid solution strengthening
--precipitate strengthening
--cold work
Heating (annealing) can reduce dislocation density
and increase grain size to soften the cold worked metal.

Chapter 7- 29