CHAPTER FIVE STRENGTHENING MECHANISMS

BASIC CONCEPTS:
Yielding: is the onset of plastic deformation meaning that dislocations have started to move.
Yield strength (δy): stress required to produce a very slight yet specific plastic strain e.g. 0.002
off set.
Ultimate tensile strength: maximum engineering stress in tension that may be sustained
without fracture.
Hardness: is the ability of the material to resist plastic deformation either by indentation or
abrasion.
Ductility
It is a measure of the degree of plastic deformation that has been sustained at fracture. A
material that experiences very little or no plastic deformation upon fracture is termed brittle.
The tensile stress–strain behaviors for both ductile and brittle materials are schematically
illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1; Schematic representations of tensile stress–strain behavior for brittle and ductile materials loaded to fracture.

Ductility may be expressed quantitatively as either percent elongation or percent reduction in

area. The percent elongation %EL is the percentage of plastic strain at fracture, or

..................................................Equation 5.1
Where, l f is the fracture length and lo is the original gauge length

Toughness is the ability of the material to absorb energy on impact/ impact loading. It is
reduced by the structure of the material if there are micro-structures which are propagated on
impact. For a material to be tough, it must display both strength and ductility. Toughness may

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be ascertained by the area under the  −  curve up to the point of fracture. Hence, from Figure
1, even though the brittle material has higher yield and tensile strengths, it has a lower
toughness than the ductile one, by virtue of lack of ductility; this is deduced by comparing the
areas ABC & AB’C’.

Note: all these terms entail dislocation mobility. Plastic deformation of a metal depends on the
ability of dislocations to move. Hardness and strength are related to the ease with which plastic
deformation can be made to occur. By reducing dislocation mobility, mechanical strength is
enhanced. Therefore, virtually all strengthening mechanisms rely on hindering dislocation
mobility to render material harder and stronger.
We shall now consider the following strengthening mechanisms in detail.
1. Strengthening by grain size reduction
2. Solid solution hardening
3. Strain or work hardening
4. Strain ageing
5. Precipitation hardening

1.1 Strengthening by grain size reduction

Figure 2: The motion of a dislocation as it encounters a grain boundary, illustrating how the boundary acts as a barrier to
continued slip. Slip planes are discontinuous and change directions across the boundary.

The size of the grains, or average grain diameter, in a polycrystalline metal influences the
mechanical properties. Adjacent grains normally have different crystallographic orientations
and, of course, a common grain boundary, as indicated in Figure 2. During plastic deformation,
slip or dislocation motion must take place across this common boundary—say, from grain A
to grain B in Figure 2. The grain boundary acts as a barrier to dislocation motion for two
reasons:
1. Since the two grains are of different orientations, a dislocation passing into grain B will have
to change its direction of motion; this becomes more difficult as the crystallographic
misorientation increases.
2. The atomic disorder within a grain boundary region will result in a discontinuity of slip
planes from one grain into the other.

A fine-grained material (one that has small grains) is harder and stronger than one that is coarse
grained, since the former has a greater total grain boundary area
to impede dislocation motion.

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Except at high temperatures polycrystalline materials show the effect of grain size on strength
and hardness. The smaller the grain size, the greater is the yield stress or flow stress.
Empirically, the yield stress is related to the grain size by the Hall-petch equation.
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 y =  0 + kd 2 ........................................................................Equation 5.2
Where,
 y = yield stress
 o = Friction stress opposing dislocation motion; can also be considered as stress required to
move an unpinned dislocation
k = unpinning constant. It measures the extent to which dislocations are pinned up at boundaries
such as grain boundaries and
d = diameter of grains.
A limitation of the Hall-petch equation is that, it is not applicable to very small grains as this
may lead to prediction of erroneous theoretical strength.

1.2 Solid solution hardening

Alloys are stronger than pure metals because the interstitial or substitutional atoms that go into
solid solution create or impose lattice strains on the surrounding host solvent atoms. Those
lattice strains interact with the dislocations, restricting dislocation mobility and hence
increasing the strength of the metal.
A small impurity atom exerts tensile lattice strains. This is a representation of
tensile lattice strains imposed on host atoms by a smaller substitutional impurity
atom.
This is how smaller impurity atoms would possibly locate themselves in
the solvent lattice relative to an edge dislocation such that there is partial
cancellation of impurity–dislocation lattice strains.

A larger substitutional impurity atom imposes compressive strains on the solvent

atoms.

This is how larger impurity atoms would possibly locate themselves in the
solvent lattice relative to an edge dislocation such that there is partial
cancellation of impurity–dislocation lattice strains.

1.3 Strain hardening (work hardening or cold working)

This is the increase in hardness and strength of a ductile metal as it is plastically deformed
below its recrystallisation temperature. The metal is said to have been cold worked.
It is sometimes convenient to express the degree of plastic deformation as percent cold work
rather than as strain. Percent cold work (%CW) is defined as
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 …………………………………..Equation 5.3

Consider the stress-strain plot of a non-ferrous metal in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Schematic tensile stress–strain diagram showing the phenomena of elastic strain recovery and strain hardening.
The initial yield strength is designated as  yo ; yi is the yield strength after releasing the load at point D, and then upon
reloading.

Initially, the metal with yield strength  yo is plastically deformed to point D. The stress is
released, then reapplied with a resultant new yield strength. The metal has thus become stronger
during the process because  yi is greater than  yo .
The strain-hardening phenomenon is explained on the basis of dislocation–dislocation strain
field interactions. The dislocation density in a metal increases with deformation or cold work,
due to dislocation multiplication or the formation of new dislocations. Consequently, the
average distance of separation between dislocations decreases—the dislocations are positioned
closer together. On the average, dislocation–dislocation strain interactions are repulsive. The
net result is that the motion of a dislocation is hindered by the presence of other dislocations.
As the dislocation density increases, this resistance to dislocation motion by other dislocations
becomes more pronounced. Thus, the imposed stress necessary to deform a metal increases
with increasing cold work. As percentage of cold work increases, yield strength increases,
ultimate tensile strength increases, ductility decreases, hardness increases and toughness
decreases.

Strain hardening is often utilized commercially to enhance the mechanical properties of metals
during fabrication procedures. The effects of strain hardening may be removed by an annealing
heat treatment.
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Strain hardening is used in strengthening
(i) Metals that are sheet rolled
(ii) Alloys which cannot be strengthened by any other means

EXAMPLE

SOLUTION
Using Equation 5.3,

The
tensile strength is read directly from the curve for copper (Figure 4a) as 340MPa (50,000 psi).

Figure 4a: For 1040 steel, brass, and copper, the increase in tensile strength, with percent cold work.

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 Figure 4b: For 1040 steel, brass, and copper, the decrease in ductility (%EL), with percent cold work.

From Figure 4b, the ductility at 35.6%CW is about 7%EL.

1.4 Strain ageing

This is a strengthening mechanism associated with the yield point phenomenon in which the
strength of the metal is increased after deformation by cold work and stressed for a relatively
long time or heated at a relatively low temperature.
The phenomenon of strain ageing is particularly observed in annealed low carbon mild steels.

Figure 5: strain ageing in annealed low carbon mild steels

Theoretically, the material should yield at lower yield point which is almost equal to the yield
stress. However, due to the presence of dislocation atom atmospheres or Cottrell atmospheres
(interstitial atoms of carbon and Nitrogen), these pin down the dislocations thus preventing
them to move. Yielding can therefore not occur at the lower yield point.

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We must slightly increase the stress up to the UYP (curve 1 point A) for us to unpin the
dislocations away from the atmospheres. Once this is done, the unpinned dislocations can now
move at lower stress so the curve falls down to the LYP (Curve 1 point B).

Upon unloading in the strain hardening region and then reloading, there will be no UYP and
LYP (Curve 2). This is because the atom atmospheres have not yet diffused to the dislocations
to re-pin them. However, after a long time:- since more dislocations are generated and since
the atom atmospheres are given time to diffuse back to their stable state to re-pin the
dislocations, there will be a reappearance of UYP and LYP but at higher values than before
(Curve 3). This is because the material thus formed is of higher dislocation density than
originally.

1.5 Precipitation Hardening (also called Age hardening)

This is accomplished by appropriate heat treatments. It is the strengthening of a precipitation
hardenable alloy by causing the precipitation of second phase particles.
Theory of precipitation hardening
Increase in hardness and strength are synonymous with increased difficulty of dislocation
mobility. If a dislocation meets a particle (assuming coherency between particles and atoms in
the rest of the lattice structure), it can either pass through it or bow between the particles leaving
dislocation loops. The next dislocation has to bow between dislocation loops, and this requires
more stress therefore leading to increase in hardness and strength.
For precipitation hardening to be achieved, the alloy system should:
(a) Have a maximum solid solubility at a particular temperature
(b) Exhibit decreasing solid solubility with decreasing temperature
An example of an alloy system that meets the above conditions is the (Cu-Zn) System and Al-
Cu system.

T ⁰C
L

α+L L+β
α

To β
M

α+β

T2
N

T1
A B
Composition %B
Co

Figure 6: Hypothetical phase diagram for a precipitation-hardenable alloy of composition Co

Procedure:
Consider an alloy of composition Co.

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 (a) Solutionising: Heat to a temperature To in the single phase region and hold for some
time to homogenise.
(b) Quench: Cool rapidly to T1 to avoid precipitation of the β phase. This results in a super
saturated solution of the α phase that is unstable.
(c) Age:
(i) Heat to a temperature T2 in the two-phase region to cause precipitation of
second phase particles that bring about increase in hardness and strength.
This is called artificial aging.
(ii) If aging is done at room temperature, then it is called natural aging.

Observation:
- Super saturated solid solution of the α phase is unstable and hence is in a high energy state.
- At the aging temperature the β phase tends to precipitate as second phase particles by the
diffusion of the excess B atoms in the α phase.
- The second phase particles inhibit slip or dislocation mobility thus increasing hardness.
- The hardness or strength increase to a maximum and then decreases with aging time for a
particular aging temperature.

Coherent Non-Coherent
Strength or Hardness

precipitate precipitate

Logarithm of aging time

Figure 7: Graph of strength or Hardness versus logarithm of aging time

NB: The process is diffusion controlled and a function of time and temperature.

Explanation:
- At the commencement of aging, the first embryos of the precipitates are very small and
have definite composition and crystal structure which are different from that of the final
precipitate.
- The crystal embryos are called guinier-prestone (G-P) zones and have different crystal
structures/ parameters from those of the matrix.
- Hence any attempt to register coherency causes distortion and hence strains the lattice
leading to increase in hardness of the metal.
-

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 Figure 8: The aluminum-rich side of the aluminum–copper phase diagram.

Figure 9: Schematic depiction of several stages in the formation of the equilibrium precipitate (  ) phase. (a) A
supersaturated  solid solution. (b) A transition,   , precipitate phase. (c) The equilibrium  phase, within the  matrix
phase. Actual phase particle sizes are much larger than shown here.

- The G-P zones disappear and may be replaced by more stable phase particles which may
again disappear. These also try to register coherency.
- With time, the precipitates form or a proper equilibrium second phase precipitate forms.
Coherency is lost and the distortion decreases. Straining of the lattice decreases and
hardness or strength also decreases. The metal is then said to have over aged.

Effect of aging temperature

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 T3
Hardness

T2
T1

T1 > T2 > T3

Time
Figure 10: Graph of Hardness versus time

Precipitation hardening is a diffusion-controlled process involving nucleation and growth of

the second phase particles. Therefore, the maximum hardness and time to attain it are a function
of aging temperature. Why?

At low aging temperature diffusion rate is low, nucleation rate is high and growth rate is low,
therefore maximum hardness takes time to appear. Maximum hardness is high due to the high
nucleation, therefore small inter-particle spacing.

At high aging temperature diffusion is high, nucleation is low and growth is high, therefore
maximum hardness takes a short time to appear and it is lower due to low nucleation, therefore
bigger inter-particle spacing, faster rate of decrease in hardness is due to high growth leading
to quick loss in coherency.

1.6 Recovery, Recrystallisation and Grain growth

Plastically deforming a polycrystalline metal specimen at temperatures that are low
relative to its absolute melting temperature produces microstructural and property changes
that include;
• a change in grain shape
• strain hardening
• An increase in dislocation density.
• Some fraction of the energy expended in deformation is stored in the metal as strain
energy, which is associated with tensile, compressive, and shear zones around the newly
created dislocations

Furthermore, other properties such as electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance

may be modified as a consequence of plastic deformation. These properties and structures
may revert back to the precold-worked states by appropriate heat treatment (sometimes
termed an annealing treatment). Such
restoration results from two different processes that occur at elevated temperatures:
recovery and recrystallization, which may be followed by grain growth.
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A. Recovery
▪ This is the stress relieving of a cold worked structure by thermal energy i.e. heating at low
temperature less than 0.3Tm (melting temperature).
▪ There is little change in the mechanical properties and the structure except the increase in
the electrical conductivity.
▪ Stress relief is brought about by thermally assisted mobility of dislocations to rearrange
themselves through:
(i) Annihilation of dislocations of opposite signs
b
Slip plane
b
(ii) Polygonisation of dislocations of the same sign in well-defined cells

(a) (b)

Figure 11: (a) Bent crystals (b) Polygonised crystals

The dislocation configuration changes from a high to low energy state by re-
arrangement into low angle boundary cells.

B. Recrystallisation
This is the process by which distorted/ strained grains of a cold worked structure is thermally
replaced by strain free and equiaxed / uniform grains(having approximately equal dimensions
in all directions) during heating the cold worked structure above the metal’s recrystallization
temperature. This is a function of:
- Severity of deformation
- Prior grain size
- Temperature of cold working: The lower this temperature, the lower the
recrystallization temperature. At lower temperature, the material must be cold worked
harder.
- Un-dissolved impurities
- Melting temperature of the metal
- Heating time at which the plastically worked metal is heated. The longer this time, the
higher will be the recrystallization temperature.
During recrystallization, new stress-free grains are nucleated and grow into equiaxed/ uniform
grains which are smaller than the original ones. The property changes during recrystallization
are:
- Decrease in hardness
- Decrease in strength
- Increase in ductility
- Increase in electrical conductivity
- Refinement of grain size

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NB: The grain refined structure is stronger than original structure before cold work.

C. Grain growth
At temperature above the recrystallization temperature, the recrystallized grains grow
accompanied by decrease of hardness and strength and increase of ductility. If the metal is
uniformly deformed, all the grains become uniformly large. Otherwise, if the metal is non-
uniformly deformed or the composition is not homogeneous throughout the structure, an
abnormally large and non-uniform grain size may result. This is called GERMINATION and
is not desirable as it impairs the ductility. Non-uniform heating or existence of temperature
gradients in a cold-worked metal causes germination.

For non-uniform plastic deformation, local areas are formed with different recrystallization
temperatures. As we heat, some parts will recrystallize earlier.

Figure 12: Schematic representation of grain growth via atomic diffusion.

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Figure 13: The influence of annealing temperature (°F) (for an annealing time of 1 h) on the tensile strength and ductility of
a brass alloy. Grain size as a function of annealing temperature is indicated. Grain structures during recovery,
recrystallization, and grain growth stages are shown schematically.

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