Strengthening Mechanisms

Strengthening Mechanisms
understanding strengthening mechanisms is crucial both in the
development of new materials with improved mechanical
properties and in the development of better material models in the
simulation of industrial processes.

Particular ways to increase strength in Metals are:

1. Grain Boundary strengthening - Grain size hardening
2. Solid Solution Strengthening
3. Cold work (strain or work hardening)
4. Precipitation (age) hardening

For all of these strengthening methods, we first need to learn

the root cause of the bending of materials: dislocation
motion.
Strengthening by Grain Size Reduction
 Grain boundaries are barriers to slip.
 Smaller grain size: more barriers to slip because of more G.Bs.
 Barrier "strength" increases with Increasing angle of
misorientation.
 G.B. impede motion of dislocations along entire length of
dislocation line.
 Strengthening by Grain Size Reduction
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.
 Strengthening by Grain Size Reduction
The principle of grain boundary
hardening is based on the complicated
dislocation movement across grain
boundaries. Grain boundaries are
therefore no weak points in the
material in this context but contribute
to a particular extent to the increase in
strength!

A high number of grain boundaries can be

achieved by fine grains in the
material. Therefore, grain boundary
strengthening is also called grain
refinement (sometimes referred to as Hall–
Petch strengthening). A small grain size can
be achieved by targeted influencing of the
melt during cooling (for example
by seeding or supercooling of the melt).
 Strengthening by Grain Size Reduction
Grain Size Reduction Techniques:
• Dislocations move through a crystal lattice until they reach a grain
boundary.
• The mismatch in the lattice orientation at the boundary between two
grains disrupts the slip plane of the dislocation.

• The boundary also creates a repulsive strain field that opposes the
slip movement of the dislocation. The dislocation is forced to stop
just ahead of the boundary.
• As more dislocations move to the boundary a process of ‘pile-up’
occurs as a growing cluster of dislocations are unable to move past
the boundary.
• Dislocations generate their own repulsive strain field and, with each
successive pile-up of a dislocation at the grain boundary, the
repulsive force acting on the dislocation nearest the boundary rises.

• This process of restricting dislocation movement across grain

boundaries is the basis of the strengthening mechanism.
 Strengthening by Grain Size Reduction
With decrease in grain size, the mean distance a dislocation can
travel decreases, and soon starts pile up of dislocations at grain
boundaries.

This leads to increase in yield strength of the material. E.O.Hall and

N.J.Petch have derived the following relation, famously known as Hall-
Petch equation, between yield strength (sy) and grain size (d):


 o and k constants for

particular material

 d is the average grain diameter.

• The principle of solid solution
hardening is based on the distortion
of the lattice by foreign atoms.
• These can be either substitutional
atoms or interstitial atoms. Due to
their blocking of the dislocation
movement, the lattice planes can
consequently no longer slide off so
easily.
• A deformation of the lattice thus
occurs only at significantly higher
critical shear stresses, since the
lattice distortion must also be
overcome. With solid solution
• In this way, an increase in the hardening, foreign
strength of the material is ultimately atoms block the
achieved. dislocation
movement!
 Strain Hardening
Strain Hardening is when a metal is strained beyond the yield
point. An increasing stress is required to produce additional plastic
deformation and the metal apparently becomes stronger and
more difficult to deform.

Work hardening, also known as strain hardening or cold working,

is the strengthening of a metal by plastic deformation.

This strengthening occurs because of dislocation movements and

dislocation generation within the crystal structure of the material

They are characterized by shaping the work piece at a

temperature below its recrystallization temperature, usually at
the ambient temperature.
 Strain Hardening
• The principle of work hardening is
based on the introduction of additional
dislocations during plastic deformation.

• In every deformation process, new

dislocations are always introduced into
the material. The dislocations thus
hinder each other from moving, which
results in a strength-increasing effect.
• Work hardening is specifically brought about, for
example, in the manufacture of cold-rolled sheets
in order to achieve a significantly higher strength
compared to the hot-rolled condition.

• Note that If too many dislocations are introduced

by plastic deformation, the material is thereby
locally destroyed and ruptured.

• This behaviour is evident, for example, in the

repeated bending back and forth of a wire. This
only works well until too many dislocations have
been introduced and the wire eventually breaks.
 Strain Hardening
 Frank-Read source - A pinned dislocation that, under an applied
stress, produces additional dislocations. This mechanism is at least
partly responsible for strain hardening.
The Frank-Read source can generate
dislocations.
(a) A dislocation is pinned at its ends
by lattice defects.
(b) As the dislocation continues to
move, the dislocation bows,
eventually bending back on itself.
(c) finally the dislocation loop forms,
and
(d) a new dislocation is created.
Dislocations entangle and multiply,
thus, dislocation motion becomes
more difficult/ is impeded.
 Strain Hardening
• Room temperature deformation.
• Common forming techniques used to
change the cross sectional area:
Ao  Ad
%CW  x100
Ao
-Forging force -Rolling
die
Ao blank Ad

force

-Drawing -Extrusion
die Ad
Ao tensile
force
die
 Precipitation Hardening
Precipitation hardening is the process of hardening or strength
ening of an alloy by precipitating finely dispersed precipitates
of the solute in a supersaturated matrix. These fine particles of an
impurity phase, impede the movement of dislocations, or defects
in a crystal's lattice.

- An aging process that increases hardness and strength.

This process involves the following three basic steps:

1. The first step is the solution heat treatment or homogeniz
ation. During this step, an alloy of composition X is heated
(whilst immersed in a solute) to a temperature T and soaked
there until all of the solute dissolves into the a phase and a
uniform solid-solution structure is produced.
- Typical solution heat treatment is done around 1800°F (982°C) to
1950°F (1066°C) for most stainless steels.
 Precipitation Hardening
2. The second step is quenching. Quenching is simply cooling the
sample rapidly to a lower temperature, usually room
temperature, and the cooling medium is usually water at room
temperature. During quenching, the solute is not immediately
able to diffuse out of a phase and the alloy is said to be
supersaturated. The rationale behind the quenching process is to prese
rve the uniform solid solution structure of the alloy below
the homogenization temperature.
3. The super saturated solid solution decomposes
with time or temperature as the alloying elements
form small precipitate clusters. The formation of
these clusters act to significantly strengthen the
material. In some alloy systems, these precipitates
form at room temperature with the passing of
time; this process is then called “natural aging.”
When heat is used to harden the material, the
process is sometimes referred to as “artificial”
aging
 Precipitation Hardening
This principle of precipitation strengthening is used in so-
called hardenable aluminum alloys. The aluminum alloy is first heated to
a relatively high temperature, so that the foreign atoms contained therein
can completely dissolve in the aluminum lattice structure. Note that
solubility generally decreases with decreasing temperature, so high
temperatures are required for complete solubility.
If it is cooled rapidly (called quenching), then the foreign atoms, despite
the lower solubility, remain forcibly dissolved in the lattice. Since the
concentration of dissolved atoms in this state is above the actual
solubility limit, one speaks of a so-called supersaturated solid solution.
This state is not thermodynamically stable, so that the forcibly solved
foreign atoms begin to segregate from the lattice and form their own
compounds (precipitates) within the metal. To accelerate this process of
so-called aging, the alloy is heated slightly, so that the diffusion
processes can proceed more quickly.

In a precipitation
hardening precipitates
block the dislocation
movement!
Strengthening Mechanisms