Deformation of Materials

Deformation of Materials: Plastic deformation of single crystal by slip and

twinning, Types of fracture. Creep: Description of the phenomenon with
examples, three stages of creep. Properties, stress relaxation. Fatigue: Types of
fatigue loading with example, Mechanism of fatigue, fatigue properties,
Plastic Deformation

Plastic Region
Elasticity:

• Ability of a body to resist a deforming force and to

return to its original size and shape when that

influence or force is removed.

• Solid objects will deform when adequate forces are

applied on them.

• If the material is elastic, the object will return to its

initial shape and size when these forces are removed

Elasticity:

• Elastomers and shape memory metals such

as Nitinol exhibit large elastic deformation ranges, as

does rubber. However elasticity is nonlinear in these

materials.

• Normal metals, ceramics and most crystals show linear

elasticity and a smaller elastic range.

Plasticity:
• Deformation of a solid material undergoing non-
reversible changes of shape in response to applied
forces.
• A solid piece of metal being bent or pounded into a new
shape displays plasticity as permanent changes occur
within the material itself.
• In engineering, the transition from elastic behaviour to
plastic behaviour is called yield

The ability of the metal to undergo plastic

deformation is one of the important property
which utilized in shaping of metals
 Classification:

• Plastic deformation of single crystals

• Plastic deformation of Polycrystalline Materials

Plastic deformation of single crystal involve the study of one

crystal and observing how it behaves under stress.

Plastic deformation in polycrystalline materials is an aggregate of

several individual crystals or grains.
Polycrystalline material is never uniform due to different
grains deform to different grains because of dissimilar
orientation.
 Plastic Deformation of Single Crystal

Takes place by:

1. Slip
2. Twinning
3. Both
 Slip
• Dislocations move on a certain crystallographic plane:

slip plane

• Dislocations move in a certain crystallographic

direction: slip direction

• The combination of slip direction and slip plane is

called a slip system

 Slip
• An external force makes parts of the crystal lattice glide

along each other, changing the material's geometry.

• Depending on the type of lattice, different slip systems are

present in the material.

• More specifically, slip occurs on close-packed planes (those

containing the greatest number of atoms per area), and in

close-packed directions (most atoms per length).

 Slip
• Slip is a permanent deformation of one part of crystal relative to

the other part.

• Slip involves sliding of one plane of atom over the other.

• During slip each atom usually moves same integral number of

atomic distance along the slip plane, but the orientation

remains same.

Slip occurs when shear stress applied exceeds the critical value.
Critically Resolved Shear Stress:

• Slip occurs when shear stress on the slip plane along the

slip direction reaches a threshold value called Critically

Resolved Shear Stress.

• Its the single crystal equivalent of yield stress

 Twinning

• Twinning is a process in which the atoms in a part of the

crystal subjected to stress rearrange themselves so that

the orientation of the part changes in a such a way that

the distorted part becomes a mirror image of the other

part.
Twinning
 Twinning

• Each plane of atoms move through a definite distance

& in the same direction

• Movement is proportional to its distance from the

twinning plane

• In the sketch, the region on the right is deformed in

such that the two regions are mirror images

• They are classified as Annealing & Mechanical twins

 Differences between Slip & Twinning

Slip Twining

• All atoms move over same • Different planes of atoms small

distance distances depending distance

• It appears as thin lines from twinning plane

• Little change in lattice • They appear as broad lines

orientation • Lattice orientation change

• Lower shear stress • Requires higher shear stress

• Contact twins share a single composition surface often

appearing as mirror images across the boundary.

• Plagioclase, quartz, gypsum often exhibit contact twinning.

• In penetration twins the individual crystals have the

appearance of passing through each other in a symmetrical

manner.

• Orthoclase, pyrite, and fluorite often show penetration

twinning.
 Plastic Deformation of Polycrystalline Materials

• Its an aggregation of individual crystals

• Never uniform due different orientation of different

grains

• Slip or twining occurs in all crystals

• Needs higher stresses due to non uniform orientation

• Greater imperfections results in weaker materials.

• The direction of slip varies from one grain to another as a

result of random crystallographic orientations grains.

Plastic deformation in polycrystalline Al. Slip planes are parallel within a grain but are
discontinuous across grain boundaries
Strain hardening is the phenomenon
whereby a ductile metal becomes harder
and stronger as it is plastically deformed
at room temperature.
 Strain Hardening

• When a metal is plastically deformed, dislocations move

and additional dislocations are generated. The more

dislocations within a material, the more they will

interact and become pinned.

• This will result in a decrease in the mobility of the

dislocations and a strengthening of the material.

 Strain Hardening

• It is called cold-working because the plastic deformation

must occurs at a temperature low enough that atoms

cannot rearrange themselves.

• When a metal is worked at higher temperatures (hot-

working) the dislocations can rearrange and little

strengthening is achieved.
Yield strength
Ductility
Tensile strength
Small amount of cold-working results in a
significant reduction in ductility.
 Strain Hardening

• Metal becomes harder & stronger when plastically

deformed

• Observed in rolling of metals

• Also called work hardening

• More in ductile materials which undergo large plastic

deformation
 Fracture

 A fracture is the separation of an object or material into

two or more pieces due to an external load

 Fracture strength is the stress at which a specimen fails via

fracture.

 Determined for a given specimen by a tensile test, which

charts the stress-strain curve.

 Final recorded point is the fracture strength.

Stress vs. strain curve typical of aluminum
1. Ultimate tensile strength
2. Yield strength
3. Proportional limit stress
4. Fracture
 Types Fracture

1. Ductile:

 Show large plastic deformation

 Slow Process with dull fracture surfaces

a. Highly Ductile Fracture

b. Moderately Ductile Fracture

2. Brittle Fracture:

 Instant break
Moderate Ductile Fracture Cup & Cone Fracture

a) Necking
b) Void
nucleation
c) Void growth
and linkage
d) Shearing at
surface
e) Fracture
Voids and internal cracks in the necked region of a polycrystalline specimen of high-
purity copper
 Brittle Fracture

• No apparent plastic deformation takes place before fracture.

• Occur by cleavage as the result of tensile stress acting normal

to crystallographic planes with low bonding.

• In amorphous solids a conchoidal fracture, with cracks

proceeding normal to the applied tension.

• The sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912 due to brittle fracture of the

hull's steel plates.

As temperature decreases ductile
material becomes brittle
 Brittle Fracture

Axial Fracture

Shear Fracture
Conchoidal
Brittle Materials
Brittle vs. Ductile

a)Brittle –Small
b)Moderately ductile – Medium
c) Very ductile-large
Trans -granular Fracture

Inter-granular fracture
 Ductile fracture Brittle Fracture

• Occurs with plastic • Little or no plastic

deformation deformation
• Material absorbs • Material absorbs low
energy before fracture energy before fracture.
• Crack is stable • Crack is unstable
• Plastic deformation • sudden
occurs with crack
growth, with increase
in stress crack
propagates and leads
to failure
Ductile to brittle transition
 Creep

Creep: Description of the phenomenon with examples, three stages of creep.

Properties, stress relaxation.

 Creep
• Property of a material by virtue of which it deforms continuously

under a steady load.

• Creep is the slow plastic deformation of materials under the

application of a constant load even below the yield strength of the

material.

• Usually creep occurs at high temperatures.

• Creep is more severe in materials that are subjected to heat for long

periods, and generally increases as they near their melting point.

Stages of Creep
Primary Stage:

 Creep rate decreases with time, the effect of work hardening is more

than that of recovery processes.

 Forms an early part of the total extension reached in a given time and

may affect clearance provided between components of a machine.

Secondary Stage:

 Creep rate is minimum and is constant with time.

 The work hardening and recovery processes are balanced.

 Used to estimate the service life of the alloy.

Tertiary Stage:

 Creep rate increases with time until fracture occurs.

 Can occur due to necking of the specimen and other processes that

ultimately result in failure.

 The Creep Limit is the stress at which a material can be formed by a

definite magnitude during a given time at a given temperature.

 The calculation of creep limit includes the temperature, the

deformation and the time in which this deformation appears.

1.Strain hardening Rate of strain hardening = Recovery

2.Recovery
 Factors affecting Creep
Heat Treatment
• Creep resistance of steel is affected by heat treatment.

• At temperatures of 300°C or higher maximum creep resistance is usually

produced.

Grain size
• The major factor in creep is grain size.

• Normally large grained materials exhibit better creep resistance than fine
grained one based on the temperature.
Strain Hardening

 Strain hardening of steel increases its creep resistance.

 So the second stage of creep curve is almost horizontal.

Alloying additions

 The creep resistance of steel may be improved by the finite forming

elements like nickel, cobalt and manganese or by the carbide forming

elements like chromium molybdenum, tungsten and vanadium.

 Mechanism of Creep

Some mechanisms that play vital roles during the creep

process are:

• Dislocation climb

• Vacancy Diffusion

• Grain boundary sliding

Dislocation Climb

• At high temperature, the appreciate atomic movement causes the

dislocation to climb up or down.

• By a simple climb of edge dislocation the diffusion rate of vacancies may

produce a motion in response to the applied stress.

Vacancy Diffusion

• Another mechanism of creep is called diffusion of vacancies.

• In this mechanism, the diffusion of vacancies controls the creep rate but

does not involve the climb of edge dislocations.

• It depends on the migration of vacancies from one side of a grain to

another. In response to the applied stress, the vacancies move from

surfaces of the specimen transverse to the stress axis

Grain Boundary Sliding

• sliding of neighboring grains with respect to the boundary that

separates them.

• Grain boundaries play a major role in the creep of polycrystals at high

temperatures as they side past each other or create vacancies.

• As the temperature increases the grain boundaries facilitate the

deformation process by sliding, whereas at low temperature, they

increase the yield strength by stopping the dislocations.

 Creep Properties

Creep Strength:
Highest stress that a material can withstand without
excessive deformation for a specified time
Creep strength for a component may be the stress that
produces 1% creep for 15000 hours of usage at 900 C

Creep Rupture Strength:

Highest stress that a material can withstand without
failure for a specified time
 Fatigue

Fatigue: Types of fatigue loading with example, Mechanism of fatigue,

fatigue properties
 Fatigue
Fatigue is caused by repeated application of stress to

the metal. It is the failure of a material by fracture when

subjected to a cyclic stress.

Fatigue is distinguished by three main features.

• Loss of strength

• Loss of ductility

• Increased uncertainty in strength and service life

 Fatigue
• All rotating machine parts are subjected to alternating stresses.

• Example: aircraft wings are subjected to repeated loads, oil and gas
pipes are often subjected to static loads but the dynamic effect of
temperature variation will cause fatigue.

• There are many other situations where fatigue failure will be very
harmful.

• Because of the difficulty of recognizing fatigue conditions, fatigue

failure comprises a large percentage of the failures occurring in
engineering.

• To avoid stress concentrations, rough surfaces and tensile residual

stresses, fatigue specimens must be carefully prepared.
 Fatigue Loading

Completely reversed cycle of stress (sinusoidal)

e.g: Bending Steel wire continuously
 Fatigue Loading

Repeated stress cycle

e.g: Spring subjected to tension only
 Fatigue Loading

Irregular or random stress cycle

e.g: loads on an airplane
The S-N Curve

• A very useful way to visual the failure for a specific

material is with the S-N curve.

• The “S-N” means stress verse cycles to failure, which when

plotted using the stress amplitude on the vertical axis and

the number of cycle to failure on the horizontal axis.

• An important characteristic to this plot as seen is the

“fatigue limit”.
Test focuses on the nominal stress required to cause a fatigue
failure in some number of cycles
S-N Curve
 Fatigue
• The point at which the curve flattens out is termed as fatigue

limit (Endurance Limit)and is well below the normal yield

stress.

• The significance of the fatigue limit is that if the material is

loaded below this stress, then it will not fail, regardless of the

number of times it is loaded.

• Materials such as aluminium, copper and magnesium do not

show a fatigue limit; therefore they will fail at any stress and

number of cycles.
• Other important terms are fatigue strength and fatigue

life.

• The fatigue strength can be defined as the stress that

produces failure in a given number of cycles usually 107.

• The fatigue life can be defined as the number of cycles

required for a material to fail at a certain stress.

 Factors affecting fatigue properties

Surface finish:

• Scratches dents identification marks can act as stress raisers and so

reduce the fatigue properties.

• Electro-plating produces tensile residual stresses and have a

detrimental effect on the fatigue properties.

Temperature:

• As a consequence of oxidation or corrosion of the metal surface

increasing, increase in temperature can lead to a reduction in fatigue
properties.
 Factors affecting fatigue properties
Residual stresses:
• Residual stresses are produced by fabrication and finishing processes.
• Residual stresses on the surface of the material will improve the fatigue
properties.
Heat treatment:
• Hardening and heat treatments reduce the surface compressive stresses; as
a result the fatigue properties of the materials are affected.
Stress concentrations:
• These are caused by sudden changes in cross section holes or sharp
corners can more easily lead to fatigue failure. Even a small hole lowers
fatigue-limit by 30%.
 Factors affecting fatigue properties

• Size (Larger = more prone to failure)

• Combined stresses

• Cumulative fatigue damage and sequence effects

• Metallurgical variables

• Corrosion
 Fatigue Failure Process

1. Crack Nucleation

2. Crack Growth

3. Fracture
 Fatigue Failure
• Fatigue fracture results from the presence of fatigue cracks,
usually initiated by cyclic stresses, at surface imperfections such
as machine marking and slip steps.

• The initial stress concentration associated with these cracks are

too low to cause brittle fracture they may be sufficient to cause
slow growth of the cracks into the interior.

• Eventually the cracks may become sufficiently deep so that the

stress concentration exceeds the fracture strength and sudden
failure occurs.

• Brittle Fast, Ductile slow