ELEMENTS OF THE THEORY OF PLASTICITY

• Plastic deformation is not a reversible process like elastic deformation.

• Elastic deformation depends only on the initial and final states of stress
and strain, while the plastic strain depends on the loading path by which
the final state is achieved.
• In plastic deformation there is no easily measured constant relating stress
to strain as with Young's modulus for elastic deformation.
• The phenomenon of strain hardening is difficult to accommodate within
the theory of plasticity without introducing considerable mathematical
complexity.
• The effect of metallurgical variables, crystal structure, and lattice
imperfections on the deformation behavior will be studied later.
 ELASTIC DEFORMATION VS PLASTIC
DEFORMATION
Elastic deformation
Reversible
Depends on initial and final states of
stress and strain
Stress is proportional to strain
No strain hardening effects
Plastic deformation
Not reversible
Depends on loading path
No simple relation between stress and
strain
Strain hardening effects
 THE TRUE STRESS-STRAIN CURVE FOR A TYPICAL DUCTILE METAL
• Beyond σ0 metal deforms plastically and strain hardens.
• If the metal is strained to a point A and then unloaded, the total strain
will immediately decrease from Ɛ1 to Ɛ2 by an amount σ/E.
• Ɛ1 - Ɛ2 is the recoverable elastic strain.
• A small amount of the plastic strain Ɛ2 – Ɛ3 disappear with time –
Anelastic behaviour
• The stress-strain curve on unloading from a plastic strain will not be
exactly linear and parallel to the elastic portion of the curve
• on reloading the curve will generally bend over as the stress approaches
the original value of stress from which it was unloaded.
• With a little additional plastic strain the stress-strain curve becomes a
continuation of what it would have been had no unloading taken place.

** anelastic strain is neglected in mathematical theories of plasticity.

• If a specimen is deformed plastically beyond the yield
stress in one direction, in tension, and then after
unloading to zero stress it is reloaded in the opposite
direction, in compression.
• Yield stress on reloading is less than the original yield
stress, σb < σa
• Dependence of the yield stress on loading path and
direction or the reduction in yield stress is called the -
Bauschinger effect (neglected in theory of plasticity)
• The dotted lines are two extreme cases which are used
in plasticity models
• Isotropic hardening model, in which the yield stress in
tension and compression are maintained equal
• Kinematic hardening, in which the total elastic range is
maintained constant throughout the deformation.
• Many attempts have been made to fit mathematical equations to e
plastic region. The most common is a power expression of the form
• , where K is the stress at = 1.0 and n is the strain hardening
coefficient (slope of the log-log plot of the flow curve equation)
• This equation can be valid only from the beginning of plastic flow to
the maximum load at which the specimen begins to neck down.
• Figure a shows the flow curve for a rigid, perfectly plastic material. For this idealized
material, a tensile specimen is completely rigid (zero elastic strain) until the axial stress
equals σ0.
• Beyond σ0 the material flows plastically at a constant flow stress (zero strain hardening).
• This type of behavior is approached by a ductile metal which is highly cold worked.
• Figure b illustrates the flow curve for a perfectly plastic material with an elastic region.
This behavior is approached by a material such as plain carbon steel which has a
pronounced yield-point elongation
• A more realistic approach is to approximate the flow curve by two straight lines
corresponding to the elastic and plastic regions (Figure c).

Idealized flow curves. (a) Rigid ideal plastic material; (b) ideal plastic material with
elastic region; (c) piecewise linear (strain-hardening) material.
Simple models of elastic and plastic
deformation
TYPICAL ENGINEERING AND TRUE STRESS STRAIN
CURVES FOR DUCTILE METALS
 RESILIENCE AND TOUGHNESS
• Resilience is defined as ability of a
material to absorb energy when
deformed elastically and to return it
when unloaded.
• Approximately this is equal to the
area under elastic part of the stress-
strain curve, and equal to area-ADH
in the figure.
• Resilience is measured in terms of
modulus of resilience (Ur)– strain
energy per unit volume required to
stress the material from zero stress to Magnified view of initial part of stress-strain curve.
yield stress (σ0 = s0).
•
• where e0 – it elastic strain limit
• Toughness (Ut) of the materials is defined as its
ability to absorb energy in the plastic range.
• It can be represented to be equal to work per unit
volume which can be done on the material without
causing it to rupture.
• It is considered that toughness of a material gives
an idea about both strength and ductility of that
material.
• Experimentally toughness is measured by either
Izod or Charpy impact tests.
• Numerically the toughness value is equal to the
area under the stress-strain curve, area-AEFI,
approximately of rectangular shape.

• where su – ultimate tensile strength and ef – strain

at fracture.
• For brittle materials (those have high elastic
modulus and low ductility), stress-strain curve is
considered to assume the shape of parabola
Stress–strain curves for strong material with little plastic flow capacity, A;
low-strength but high-ductility material, B; and a metal with optimum
combination of strength and ductility for maximum toughness, C.
• Percentage elongation

• Reduction in area

• Relation
 LATTICE DEFECTS
• Real crystals deviate from the perfect periodicity
• Lattice imperfections may be divided into point defects, 0D – Point Defects
line defects and surface or plane, defects.

• 0D – Point Defects – Vacancy, Interstitial, Substitutional

• 1D – Line Defects – Edge dislocation , screw dislocation

1D – Line Defects

• 2D – Planar Defect -

2D – Planar Defect
 POINT DEFECTS
• A vacancy, or vacant lattice site exists when an
atom is missing from a normal lattice position
• Vacancies are created by thermal excitation
(thermodynamically stable at temperatures
greater than absolute zero). (a) (b) (c)
• At equilibrium, the fraction of lattices that are Point defects (a) vacancy, or vacant lattice site,
vacant at a given temperature is given by (b) interstitial atom, and (c) interstitialcy,
𝑬𝒔/𝑲𝑻 impurity atom at a lattice position

• Where, n is the number of vacant sites in N sites and Es is the energy required to move
an atom from the interior of a crystal to its surface.

• For vacancies greater than equilibrium number - rapid quenching from close to the
melting point, extensive plastic deformation, or bombardment with high-energy
nuclear particles etc.
 LINE DEFECTS-DISLOCATIONS
• The most important two-dimensional, or line, defect is the
dislocation.
• A defect that affects the row or line of atoms in the lattice
• A defect that is responsible for the phenomenon of slip, by
which most metals deform plastically.
• Edge dislocations – an extra half plane of atoms within a
crystal lattice.
• Screw Dislocation – 1-D line defect in which a path spirals
around a dislocation line penetrating through individual
parallel planes.
 BURGER’S VECTOR - EDGE DISLOCATIONS
• Burger’s Vector – The displacement vector that “closes the loop” when traversing an equal
number of lattice steps around the defect
• The amount of displacement is equal to the Burgers vector b of the dislocation.
• An edge dislocation with the extra plane of atoms above the slip plane, is called a positive
edge dislocation and is frequently indicated by the symbol
• If the extra plane of atoms lies below the slip plane, the dislocation is a negative edge
dislocation, T .
b
BURGER’S VECTOR – SCREW DISLOCATION
• The Burger’s vector that closes the loop when traversing an equal number of
lattice defects steps around the
Y

X
LATTICE MOVEMENT – DISLOCATION GLIDE
 2-D PLANAR DEFECT – GRAIN BOUNDARIES
• Formation of grains and associated grain boundaries during melt solidification of a metal.
Grain Boundaries - The 2-D interface between adjacent grains in a polycrystalline material
LINE DEFECTS-DISLOCATIONS
• Dislocation motion is analogous to the mode of locomotion employed by a
caterpillar.
• The caterpillar forms a hump near its posterior end by pulling in its last pair
of legs a unit leg distance.
• The hump is propelled forward by repeated lifting and shifting of leg pairs.
• When the hump reaches the anterior end, the entire caterpillar has moved
forward by the leg separation distance.
• The caterpillar hump and its motion correspond to the extra half-plane of
atoms in the dislocation model of plastic deformation.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF DISLOCATIONS
• When metals are plastically deformed, some fraction of the
deformation energy (approximately 5%) is retained internally;
the remainder is dissipated as heat.
• The major portion of this stored energy is as strain energy
associated with dislocations.
• Some atomic lattice distortion exists around the dislocation
line because of the presence of the extra half-plane of atoms.
• As a consequence, there are regions in which compressive
tensile, and shear lattice strains
• Atoms immediately above and adjacent to the dislocation line
are squeezed together experiencing a compressive strain
relative
• Below the half-plane, the effect is just the opposite; lattice
atoms sustain an imposed tensile strain
• Shear strains also exist in the vicinity of the edge dislocation.
For a screw dislocation, lattice strains are pure shear.
• These lattice distortions may be considered to be strain fields
that radiate from the dislocation line.
• The strains extend into the surrounding atoms, and their
magnitude decreases with radial distance from the dislocation.
• The strain fields surrounding dislocations in close
proximity to one another may interact such that
forces are imposed on each dislocation by the
combined interactions of all its neighboring
dislocations.
• Consider two edge dislocations that have the same
sign and the identical slip plane, as represented in
Figure
• compressive and tensile strain fields for both lie on
the same side of the slip plane;
• The strain field interaction is such that there exists
between these two isolated dislocations a mutual
repulsive force that tends to move them apart.
• Two dislocations of opposite sign and having the same slip plane are attracted to one
another, and dislocation annihilation occurs when they meet.
• Dislocation interactions are possible among edge, screw, and/or mixed dislocations
• These strain fields and associated forces are important in the strengthening mechanisms
for metals.
 DEFORMATION BY SLIP

• Plastic deformation in metals is by the sliding of blocks of the crystal over one
another along definite crystallographic planes, called slip planes.
• Slip occurs when the shear stress exceeds a critical value.
• Slip occurs most readily in specific directions on certain crystallographic planes.
• Generally the slip plane is the plane of greatest atomic density and
• The slip direction is the closest-packed direction within the slip plane.
• Since, Planes of greatest atomic density are the most widely spaced planes in the
crystal structure, the resistance to slip is generally less for these planes than for
any other set of planes
• The slip plane together with the slip direction establishes the slip system.
 SLIP SYSTEM
• Consider, for example, the FCC crystal structure, a unit
cell shown in Figure.
• There is a set of planes, the {111} family, all of which
are closely packed.
• Slip occurs along 110 -type directions within the (a) A {111} 〈110〉 slip system
{111} planes, as indicated by arrows in Figure. shown within an FCC unit cell. (b) The (111)
• {111} 110 represents the slip plane and direction plane from (a) and three 〈110〉 slip directions
combination, or the slip system for FCC. (as indicated by arrows) within that plane
constitute possible slip systems.
• Figure b demonstrates that a given slip plane may
contain more than a single slip direction.
• Several slip systems may exist for a particular crystal
structure;
• The number of independent slip systems represents
the different possible combinations of slip planes and
directions.
• For example, for face-centered cubic, there are 12 slip
systems: four unique {111} planes and, within each
plane, three independent 110 directions.
• The possible slip systems for FCC, BCC and HCP crystal structures are
listed in Table

Slip Systems for Face-Centered Cubic, Body-Centered Cubic, and Hexagonal Close-Packed Metals
• For metals having BCC or HCP crystal structures, some slip systems are often operable only
at elevated temperatures.
• Metals with FCC or BCC crystal structures have a relatively large number of slip systems (at
least 12).
• These metals are quite ductile because extensive plastic deformation is normally possible
along the various systems.
• Conversely, HCP metals, having few active slip systems, are normally quite brittle.
• In the hexagonal close-packed metals, the only plane with high atomic density is the basal
plane (0001). The axes (1120) are the close-packed directions.
• Slip is possible on more than one family of planes e.g., {110}, {211}, and {321} for BCC.
• There is no one plane of predominant atomic density in BCC as (111) in the fcc structure
and (0001) in the hcp structure
• The {110} planes have the highest atomic density in the bcc structure
• However, in the bcc structure the (111) direction is just as close-packed as the (110) and
(1120) directions in the fcc and hcp
• Bcc metals obey the general rule that the slip direction is the close-packed direction, but
they differ from most other metals by not having a definite single slip plane.
• Slip in bcc metals is found to occur on the {110}, {112}, and {123} planes, while the slip
direction is always the [111) direction.
• Thus, there are 48 possible slip systems, but since the planes are not so close-packed as
in the fcc structure, higher shearing stresses are usually required to cause slip.
• Slip lines in bcc metals have a wavy appearance.
• In slip, a Burgers vector’s direction corresponds to a dislocation’s slip direction
• Magnitude is equal to the unit slip distance (or interatomic separation in this direction).
• Both the direction and the magnitude of b depend on crystal structure,
• Burgers vectors for face-centered cubic, body-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-
packed crystal structures are as follows: