Fracture Mechanics

UET Taxila
Lecture 6
Structure-Sensitive Properties
and
structure-insensitive properties
 Structure-Sensitive Properties
Dependency
Structure-Sensitive Properties
depend critically on things like:
1- The composition of the metal
2- Whether it has been heated,
quenched or cold formed.
3- Alloying or heat treating
These factors controlling the
structure of the metal.
 List different structure-sensitive properties.

Answer:
Structure-sensitive properties are:
yield strength, hardness, tensile
strength, ductility, fracture
toughness, fatigue strength,
creep strength, corrosion
resistance, wear resistance,
thermal conductivity, electrical
conductivity.
List different structure-insensitive
properties

Elastic moduli, Poisson’s ratio,

density, thermal expansion
coefficient, specific heat.
 Crystalline structures.
Basic concepts
Crystals are solids in which the atoms
are regularly arranged with respect to
one another.
This regularity of arrangement can be
described in terms of symmetry
elements.
These symmetry elements determine the
symmetry of the physical properties of
a crystal.
 Atomic structure
• Most solids when viewed at high
magnification appear to be made up of
tiny grains (crystals)
• Within each grain or crystallite, the
atoms are arranged in a regular
repeating pattern
• In a grain of Aluminum (half a mm in
diameter), there are (……) atoms.
• The packing of atoms to form crystals
can be different for different materials.
 Lattice & Base
All crystals can be described as
consisting of two parts:

(a) the lattice

and
(b) the base.
 Definition of Lattice
A lattice is a set of point in space
such that the surroundings of the
one point are
identical with those of all the
others.
In other words:
The lattice is a 3D array of mathematical
points each of which must have identical
surroundings.
 Definition of the Base

The base is:

The identical group of atoms
which surround each point in
the lattice to build up the
crystal.
 Lattice Arrays

The elementary space-

elements can be filled in
the following manners
(for metals) :

      
 Lattice Points in
Simple Cubic (SC)
Body Centered Cubic (BCC)
 BCC
It appears at

W, Mo and -Fe.
Face Centered Cubic
 (FCC)

It appears at Cu, Ni, and -

Fe.
Lattice Points in Hexagonal System
Close Packed Hexagonal (CPH)
 CPH

Examples are: Mg, Zn, Cd, -Co

and -Ti.
How many atoms are there in
the following unit cells:
i) BCC?
ii) FCC?
iii) CPH
Lattice Vectors
 In the cubic system there are planes:

 
 

cubic planes dodecahedra planes octahedral planes

 Number of Planes in Cubic System

There are:
3 different cubic planes,
6 dodecahedra planes and
4 octahedral planes.
The planes are denoted with
Miller indices.
Phases
 Phase Definition

A phase is a region of
material that has
uniform physical and
chemical properties.
 Examples of Phases
Water is a phase – any one
drop of water is the same
as the next.
Ice is another phase – one
splinter of ice is the same
as any other.
But the mixture of ice and
water in your glass at
dinner is not a single
phase
because its properties vary
as you move from water
to ice.
Ice + water is a two-phase
mixture
 Grain and phase boundaries
A pure metal, or a solid solution, is
single phase.
It is certainly possible to make
single crystals of metals or alloys
(but it is difficult and the expense
is only worth it for high technology
applications such as single-crystal
turbine blades or single-crystal
silicon for microchips.)
 Normally, any single-phase
metal is polycrystalline –

It is made up of millions of small

crystals, or grains, “stuck”
together by grain boundaries
 Crystal Imperfections

The most important crystal

imperfections are:

 Vacancies
 Interstitials
 Dislocations
 1- Vacancies

 Vacancies are simply empty atom sites

as shown in the Figure:

                                  
Vacancy crystal defect.
The lattice vacancies are a
stable feature of metals at all
temperatures above absolute
zero.
By successive jumps of atoms, it
is possible for a vacancy to
move in the lattice structure and
therefore play an important part
in diffusion of atoms through the
lattice.
Vacancies are not only
present as a result of
solidification but can be
produced by raising the
temperature or by
irradiation with fast
moving nuclear particles.
 2- Interstitials:

It is possible that some atoms

may fall into interstitial
positions or in the spaces of
the lattice structure which
may not be used by the
atoms of a specific unit cell as
shown in the Figure :
Interstitial crystal defect.
Interstitials tend to push the
surrounding atoms farther apart
and also produce distortion of
the lattice planes.
Interstitial atoms may be
produced by the severe local
distortion during plastic
deformation as well as by
irradiation.
 3- Dislocations:
A dislocation may be defined as a
disturbed region between two
substantially perfect parts of a
crystal. A dislocation is a linear
defect around which some of the
atoms are misaligned. The three
simple types of dislocation are :
 Edge dislocation
 Screw dislocation
 The combination of two
Edge dislocation
Screw dislocation
 Dislocations can be observed in
crystalline materials using
electron-microscopic techniques.
Virtually all crystalline materials
contain some dislocations that
were introduced during
solidification, during plastic
deformation, and as
consequence of thermal stresses
that result from rapid cooling.
 The importance of dislocations
to the metal user is that
dislocation interactions within a
metal are a primary means by
which metals are deformed and
strengthened. When metals
deform by dislocation motion,
the more barriers the
dislocations meet, the stronger
the metal.
 Deformation by dislocation
motion is one of the
characteristics of metals that
make them the most useful
engineering materials. The
metallic bond is such that
strains to the crystal lattice are
accommodated by dislocation
motion. Many metals can
tolerate significant plastic
deformation before failing.  
 Summary
What is the cause of plastic
deformation in metals?
Plastic deformation is due to the
motion of a large number of
dislocations.

While the strength is the resistance

of the material to deformation.
The motion is called
slip.

Thus strength can be

improved by putting
obstacles to slip.
Their motion (slip) occurs
by sequential bond
breaking and bond
reforming. The number of
dislocations per unit
volume is the
dislocation density
In any plane they are
measured per unit area.
 Number and origin of dislocations
The number of dislocations increases
dramatically during plastic deformation.

Dislocations generate from

:
1- existing dislocations,
2- and from defects
3- grain boundaries
4- surface irregularities