EME 4353 Advanced Engineering Materials

Lecture 5 :
Plastic Deformation

PowerPoint® Slides
by Dr Lai MK
 Learning Objectives

1. To define hardness and explain how it is measured.

2. To describe the various available hardness scales
3. To explain the differences between elastic and plastic
deformation at atomic level
4. To describe the concept of slip, dislocations and twins

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 Hardness and Hardness testing

1. Hardness is a measure of resistance to permanent (plastic)

deformation. Analysis can be qualitative or quantitative:
a) Qualitative – arbitrary hardness indexing using Mohs scale.
Range from 1 (talc) to 10 (diamond)
b) Quantitative – small indenter is forced into surface of material.
Hardness number calculated based on depth/size of indentation
2. 3 common hardness tests:
 Brinell
 Vickers
 Rockwell
3. Hardness tests are commonly perform because:
a) Simple and inexpensive
b) Nondestructive

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 Various Hardness Tests (Summary)
A small
indentation
appears. At
this point,
the meter is
set to zero.

Penetrator
enters the
material.
Keep this
position.

Additional
load F1 is
removed.
Meter only
Source: Hayden et al, “The Structure and Properties of Materials,”
shows the
Vol III, Wiley, 1965.
remaining
penetration
depth
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 Hardness Conversion
 Hardness of metal depends on the
ease with which it plastically
deforms
 Measured hardnesses are only
relative.
 Conversion is required when
comparing values by different
techniques
 Both tensile and hardness are
indicators of metal’s resistance to
plastic deformation:

Tensile Strength (MPa) = 3.45 x HB

Adapted from G. F. Kinney, Engineering

Properties and Applications of Plastics.

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 Tensile-Test

Outline of a tensile-test sequence showing different stages in the

elongation of the specimen: Elastic → Plastic → Fracture

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 Elastic Deformation

Metal atoms are displaced from their original

positions but not to the extend that they take
up new positions  reversible process

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 Plastic Deformation

Metal atoms are permanently displaced from

their original positions and take up new
positions  irreversible process

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 Idealized Stress-Strain Diagram

Perfectly plastic Perfectly plastic

Linear elastic Linear elastic

a) Rigid, perfectly plastic material: Exhibit negligible elastic strains in

comparison with large plastic deformations at practically constant stress
b) Rigid-plastic material: Deformation due to strain hardening
c) Elastic, perfectly plastic material:
d) Elastic, rigid-plastic material:

In the curves, a and b designate the tensile yield and ultimate

stresses, σyp and σu, respectively.

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 True Stress - True Strain Curve

Unlike in an engineering stress-strain The effect of strain-hardening

curve, the slope is always positive and exponent n on the shape of true
that the slope decreases with stress true strain curves. When n =
increasing strain 1, the material is elastic, and when
n = 0, it is rigid and perfectly plastic.

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 Non-linear Behaviour

• In design of structures and machines, stresses and

strains are limited to elastic range of a material
• Beyond elastic range:
a) For brittle materials, fracture will occur
b) For ductile materials, it will enter the plastic range of
deformation or yielding
• Plastic strain is large compared to elastic strain (up to
300 times)
 Perfectly plastic or strain hardening

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 Strain hardening

• Is a phenomenon whereby a ductile metal becomes

harder and stronger as it is plastically deformed
 Higher stress level is required to create larger strain

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 Dislocations

• Plastic deformation corresponds to motion of large

numbers of dislocation

Microscopic
level

Macroscopic
level

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 Dislocation motion

Analogous to the mode of locomotion of a caterpillar:

1. Forms a hump near posterior by pulling last pair of legs
a unit distance
2. Hump is propelled forward by repeated lifting and
shifting
3. When hump reaches anterior end, caterpillar has
moved forward by a leg separation distance
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 Characteristics of Dislocations

• When metals are plastically deformed, fraction of

deformation energy is retained (remainder dissipated as
heat) and extend into surrounding atoms

• Strain field surrounding dislocations in close proximity

may interact (combined)

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 Slip in Single Crystal Metals
1. Process by which plastic deformation by dislocation
is termed slip
 Crystallographic plane along which the
dislocation line traverses is slip plane
 Direction of motion is slip direction
 Combination of slip plane and slip direction is slip
system

Slip in Zn single
Slip geometry
crystal

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 Slip mechanism

• A metal single crystal has a number

of different slip systems
• Slip occurs along most favorably
oriented planes and directions
• Single crystals plastically deforms
when
   crss
y
(cos  cos  ) max

crss – critical resolved shear stress

• minimum stress necessary to
introduce yielding occurs when a
single crystal is oriented such that
    45 ,  y  2 crss

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 Example 1

Consider a single crystal of BCC iron oriented such that a tensile stress
is applied along a [010] direction.
(a) Compute the resolved shear stress along a (110) plane and in a
[111] direction when a tensile stress of 52 MPa (7500 psi) is
applied. (Ans: 21.3 MPa)
(b) If slip occurs on a (110) plane and in a [111] direction, and the
critical resolved shear stress is 30 MPa, calculate the magnitude of
the applied tensile stress necessary to initiate yielding.
(Ans: 73.4 MPa)

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 Solution

 and  angles are respectively angle between tensile

direction and Normal to Slip plane and angle between
tensile direction and slip direction (these slip directions
are material dependent)

 
u1u2  v1v2  w1w2
  Cos 1  
 
 u
2
1 v w  u v w
2
1
2
1   2
2
2
2
2
2  

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 Slip in Polycrystalline Metals

1. Due to random crystallographic orientation of numerous

grains, direction of slip varies

2. During deformation, mechanical integrity and coherency

are maintained along the grain boundaries as they don’t
usually come apart.
 Grains become elongated
along the direction in which
the specimen was extended

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 Twinning

• A part of the atomic lattice is deformed so that it forms a

mirror image of the undeformed lattice next to it

Twinning plane – crystallographic plane of symmetry between

deformed and undeformed parts of metal lattice

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