TOPIC 7:

DISLOCATIONS AND
STRENGTHENING
• Dislocations and their dynamics

• How are strength and dislocation motion related?

• How do we increase strength?

• How can heating change strength and other properties?

 EDGE DISLOCATION
Extra half plane of atoms

Symbol

• Edge dislocation line: Directed into the page

• Atoms above dislocation line are in compression, and
those below are in tension
 SCREW DISLOCATION

Symbol

AB is screw
dislocation line
 DISLOCATION MOTION

• Incrementally breaking bonds

• If dislocations don't move, deformation doesn't

happen! (But fracture will, like in a ceramic)
 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. + - + - + - +
DISLOCATION DENSITY
• Dislocation density: total dislocation length per unit
volume of material …
• … or, the number of dislocations that intersect a unit
area of a random section
• The dislocation density typically determines the
strength of a material

• Metals (carefully solidified): 103 mm-2

• Metals (heavily deformed): 109-1010 mm-2
• Metals (heat treated): 105-106 mm-2
• Ceramics: 102-104 mm-2
• Single crystal silicon for ICs: 0.1-1 mm-2
 LOCAL STRAIN FIELDS

• Edge dislocation: compression (above dislocation

line) & tension (below dislocation line)
• Screw dislocation: shear
• Stress & strain fields decrease with radial
distance from dislocation line
 DISLOCATION INTERACTION

• Strain field from one dislocation can affect a

neighboring dislocation
• Two like dislocations can repel each other
• Unlike dislocations attract and annihilate each other
 SLIP SYSTEMS

• Dislocations do not move with the same degree of

ease on all crystallographic planes and directions

• There are preferred planes (slip planes) and

preferred directions (slip directions)

• Slip planes are planes with high planar density of

atoms, and slip directions are lines with high linear
density

• Slip system: the combination of slip plane and slip

direction
 SLIP SYSTEM: EXAMPLES

• FCC (Al, Cu, Ni, Ag, Au)

– Close packed planes: {111}, e.g., ADF
– Close packed directions: <110>, e.g., AD, DF, AF
– Slip system: {111}<110> (12 independent slip systems)
• BCC (Fe, W, Mo): {110}<111> (12 independent slip
systems)
• HCP (Zn, Cd, Mg, Ti, Be): 3 independent slip systems
• FCC & BCC metals: ductile, HCP metals: brittle
 SLIP IN SINGLE CRYSTALS
• Single crystals easy to treat; can generalize to polycrystals later
• Regardless of what type of external stress is applied to a
material, plastic deformation or dislocation motion occurs due to
a shear stress
• Some component of the applied stress has to be a shear stress
on a slip plane and along a slip direction
• This component is called the resolved shear stress
 RESOLVED SHEAR STRESS
Applied tensile Resolved shear Relation between
stress:  = F/A stress: R=Fs/As  and R
F slip plane R=Fs/As
A R
normal, ns
As Fcos A/cos
Fs ns
F
 A
Fs As
F R

F cos 
 R   cos  cos 
A / cos 
 CRITICAL RESOLVED SHEAR
STRESS (CRSS)
• Condition for dislocation motion: R  CRSS
• Crystal orientation can make it easy or hard to move disl.
R   cos  cos 
  

R = 0 R = /2 R = 0
=90° =45° =90°
=45°

• Maximum possible R = /2; thus y = 2CRSS

 BCC EXAMPLE

• Slip system: {110}<111>

 = 45 degrees
 = tan-1(a2/a) = 54.7 degrees
• From which  or  can be calculated if one of
them is specified
DISL. MOTION IN POLYCRYSTALS
• Slip planes & directions () 
change from one crystal to
another.

• R will vary from one crystal to Adapted from Fig.

another. 7.10, Callister 6e.
(Fig. 7.10 is
courtesy of C.
• The crystal with the largest R Brady, National
Bureau of
yields first. Standards [now
the National
Institute of
• Other (less favorably Standards and
oriented) crystals yield later. Technology,
Gaithersburg,
MD].)
• Polycrystalline materials
generally stronger than single
crystals, due to geometric
constraints & the requirement of
larger stresses for yielding 300 m
STRENGTHENING MECHANISMS
• Macroscopic plastic deformation corresponds to the
motion of large numbers of dislocations
– The ability of a metal to plastically deform depends on the
ability of dislocations to move

• Virtually all strengthening techniques rely on

restricting or hindering dislocation motion

• We will look at 4 such mechanisms

– Reduce grain size
– Solid-solution strengthening
– Precipitation strengthening
– Strain hardening (or cold working)
STRENGTHENING STRATEGY 1:
REDUCE GRAIN SIZE
• Grain boundaries are
barriers to slip.
- dislocation has to change
directions
- grain boundary region slip plane B
disordered, so discontinuity in a in
slip planes gr
grain A

gr
• Barrier "strength”

ain
Adapted from Fig. 7.12, Callister 6e.
increases with (Fig. 7.12 is from A Textbook of Materials

bo
Technology, by Van Vlack, Pearson

un
misorientation. Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.)

da
• Smaller grain size: more

ry
barriers to slip.

• Hall-Petch Equation:  yield  o  k y d 1/ 2

 GRAIN SIZE STRENGTHENING:
AN EXAMPLE
• Grain size controlled by heat treatment (e.g., cooling rate
during solidification, annealing)
• 70wt%Cu-30wt%Zn brass alloy
 yield  o  k y d 1/ 2
grain size, d (mm)
10-1 10-2 5x10-3
200 Adapted from Fig. 7.13,
Callister 6e.
yield(MPa)

(Fig. 7.13 is adapted

150 from H. Suzuki, "The
Relation Between the
100 ky Structure and
Mechanical Properties
of Metals", Vol. II,
50 1 National Physical
Laboratory Symposium
0 No. 15, 1963, p. 524.)
0 4 8 12 16
[grain size (mm)]-0.5
 ANISOTROPY IN yield
• Can be induced by rolling a polycrystalline metal
-before rolling -after rolling
Adapted from Fig. 7.11,
Callister 6e. (Fig. 7.11 is
from W.G. Moffatt, G.W.
Pearsall, and J. Wulff, The
Structure and Properties of
Materials, Vol. I, Structure,
p. 140, John Wiley and Sons,
New York, 1964.)

rolling direction
235 m
-isotropic -anisotropic
since grains are since rolling affects grain
approx. spherical orientation and shape.
& randomly
oriented.
STRENGTHENING STRATEGY 2:
SOLID SOLUTION STRENGTHENING
• Impurity atoms distort the lattice & generate stress.
• Stress can produce a barrier to dislocation motion.
• Smaller substitutional • Larger substitutional
impurity impurity

A C

B D

Impurity generates local shear at A Impurity generates local shear at C

and B that opposes disl motion to the and D that opposes disl motion to the
right. right.
 SOLID SOLUTION STRENGTHENING
• Impurity atoms attracted to dislocations so as to
reduce the overall strain energy, i.e., to partially
cancel the strain in the lattice surrounding the
dislocation
• If a dislocation wants to move, it has to tear itself
from the impurity atoms which will cost energy

Larger impurity atom

below dislocation line
Smaller impurity atom
above dislocation line
EXAMPLE: SOLID SOLUTION
STRENGTHENING IN COPPER
STRENGTHENING STRATEGY 3:
PRECIPITATION STRENGTHENING
• Hard precipitates are difficult to shear.
Ex: Ceramics in metals (SiC in Iron or Aluminum).
precipitate
Large shear stress needed
Side View to move dislocation toward
precipitate and shear it.

Unslipped part of slip plane Dislocation

Top View
“advances” but
precipitates act as
“pinning” sites with
S spacing S.
Slipped part of slip plane

1
• Result: y ~
S
 SIMULATION:
PRECIPITATION STRENGTHENING
• View onto slip plane of Nimonic PE16
• Precipitate volume fraction: 10%

Simulation courtesy of Volker

Mohles, Institut für
Materialphysik der Universitåt,
Münster, Germany
(http://www.uni-
munster.de/physik
/MP/mohles/). Used with
permission.
 APPLICATION:
PRECIPITATION STRENGTHENING
• Internal wing structure on Boeing 767
Adapted from Fig.
11.0, Callister 5e.
(Fig. 11.0 is
courtesy of G.H.
Narayanan and A.G.
Miller, Boeing
Commercial
Airplane Company.)

• Aluminum is strengthened with precipitates formed

by alloying.
Adapted from Fig.
11.24, Callister 6e.
(Fig. 11.24 is
courtesy of G.H.
Narayanan and A.G.
Miller, Boeing
Commercial
Airplane Company.)

1.5m
STRENGTHENING STRATEGY 4:
COLD WORK (%CW)
• Room temperature deformation.
• Common forming operations change the cross sectional
area:
-Forging force -Rolling
roll
die Ad
Ao blank Ad Ao
Adapted from Fig.
11.7, Callister 6e. roll

-Drawing force -Extrusion

Ao
die Ad container die holder
Ao tensile force
force ram billet extrusion Ad
die container die
Ao  Ad
%CW  x100
Ao
 DISLOCATIONS DURING COLD WORK
• Ti alloy after cold working:

• Dislocations entangle
with one another
during cold work.
• Dislocation motion
becomes more difficult.

Adapted from Fig.

4.6, Callister 6e.
(Fig. 4.6 is courtesy
of M.R. Plichta,
Michigan
Technological
0.9 m University.)
 RESULT OF COLD WORK
• Dislocation density (d) goes up:
Carefully prepared sample: d ~ 103 mm/mm3
Heavily deformed sample: d ~ 1010 mm/mm3
• Ways of measuring dislocation density:
40mm
Volume, V Area, A dislocation Micrograph
pit adapted from Fig.
length, l1 7.0, Callister 6e.

length, l2 OR (Fig. 7.0 is

courtesy of W.G.
N dislocation
length, l3 Johnson, General
pits (revealed Electric Co.)
l l l by etching)
d  1 2 3  N
V d
A

• Yield stress increases
y1 large hardening
as d increases:  y0 small hardening


 SIMULATION: DISLOCATION
MOTION/GENERATION
• Tensile loading (horizontal dir.) of a FCC metal with
notches in the top and bottom surface.
• Over 1 billion atoms modeled in 3D block.
• Note the large increase in disl. density.

Simulation courtesy
of Farid Abraham. Used with
permission from International
Business Machines
Corporation.
 DISLOCATION-DISLOCATION TRAPPING
• Dislocations generate stress.
• This traps other dislocations.

Red dislocation
generates shear at A
pts A and B that
opposes motion of
green disl. from
B
left to right.
 IMPACT OF COLD WORK
• Yield strength increases.
• Tensile strength (TS) increases.
• Ductility (%EL or %AR) decreases (dramatically).
Stress

Adapted from Fig. 7.18,

Callister 6e. (Fig. 7.18 is
from Metals Handbook:
Properties and Selection:
Iron and Steels, Vol. 1, 9th
ed., B. Bardes (Ed.),
American Society for
Metals, 1978, p. 221.)

%
co
ld
wo
rk Strain
 COLD WORK ANALYSIS
• What is the tensile strength & Copper
Cold
ductility after cold working? work
ro2  rd2 ----->
%CW  x100  35.6%
2
ro Do=15.2mm Dd=12.2mm

yield strength (MPa) tensile strength (MPa) ductility (%EL)

60
700 800

500 600 40

300 300MPa
Cu
Cu 400 340MPa 20
Cu 7%
100
0 20 40 60 200 00
0 20 40 60 20 40 60
% Cold Work % Cold Work % Cold Work
y=300MPa TS=340MPa %EL=7%
Adapted from Fig. 7.17, Callister 6e. (Fig. 7.17 is adapted from Metals Handbook: Properties and
Selection: Iron and Steels, Vol. 1, 9th ed., B. Bardes (Ed.), American Society for Metals, 1978, p.
226; and Metals Handbook: Properties and Selection: Nonferrous Alloys and Pure Metals, Vol. 2,
9th ed., H. Baker (Managing Ed.), American Society for Metals, 1979, p. 276 and 327.)
 - BEHAVIOR VS TEMPERTURE
• Results for 800
polycrystalline iron: -200°C
600

Stress (MPa)
400 -100°C
25°C
200
Adapted from Fig. 6.14,
Callister 6e. 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Strain
• y and TS decrease with increasing test temperature.
• %EL increases with increasing test temperature.
3. disl. glides past obstacle
• Why?
2. vacancies
Vacancies help replace
dislocations past atoms on the
obstacle
disl. half
obstacles. plane 1. disl. trapped
by obstacle
 EFFECT OF HEATING AFTER %CW
• 1 hour treatment at Tanneal...
decreases TS and increases %EL.
• Effects of cold work are reversed!
Annealing Temperature (°C)
100 300 500 700
tensile strength (MPa)

600 60
tensile strength • 3 Annealing
50 stages to

ductility (%EL)
500
40 discuss...

400 30
ductility 20 Adapted from Fig. 7.20, Callister 6e. (Fig.
7.20 is adapted from G. Sachs and K.R.
300 R Re Gr van Horn, Practical Metallurgy, Applied
ec c ain Metallurgy, and the Industrial Processing
ov rys of Ferrous and Nonferrous Metals and
er tal Gr
y liz ow Alloys, American Society for Metals,
ati th 1940, p. 139.)
on
 RECOVERY
Annihilation reduces dislocation density.
• Scenario 1 extra half-plane
of atoms Disl.
annhilate
atoms
diffuse and form
a perfect
to regions
of tension atomic
plane.
extra half-plane
of atoms
• Scenario 2
3. “Climbed” disl. can now R
move on new slip plane
2. grey atoms leave by
4. opposite dislocations
vacancy diffusion
meet and annihilate
allowing disl. to “climb”
1. dislocation blocked; obstacle dislocation
can’t move to the right
 RECRYSTALLIZATION
• New crystals are formed that:
--have a small disl. density
--are small
--consume cold-worked crystals.
0.6 mm 0.6 mm

Adapted from
Fig. 7.19 (a),(b),
Callister 6e.
(Fig. 7.19 (a),(b)
are courtesy of
J.E. Burke,
General
Electric
Company.)

33% cold New crystals

worked nucleate after
brass 3 sec. at 580C.
FURTHER RECRYSTALLIZATION
• All cold-worked crystals are consumed.

0.6 mm 0.6 mm

Adapted from
Fig. 7.19 (c),(d),
Callister 6e.
(Fig. 7.19 (c),(d)
are courtesy of
J.E. Burke,
General
Electric
Company.)

After 4 After 8
seconds seconds
 GRAIN GROWTH
• At longer times, larger grains consume smaller ones. Why?
• Grain boundary area (and therefore energy) is reduced.

0.6 mm 0.6 mm
Adapted from
Fig. 7.19 (d),(e),
Callister 6e.
(Fig. 7.19 (d),(e)
are courtesy of
J.E. Burke,
General Electric
Company.)

After 8 s, After 15 min,

580C 580C
coefficient dependent
• Empirical Relation:
on material and T.
exponent typ. ~ 2
grain diam. elapsed time
n
at time t. d  d no  Kt
 SUMMARY
• Dislocations motion correlates to plastic deformation.

• 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.