Mechanical Properties of Metals

and Alloys: Definitions and Units

• Stress  = F/A, MPa = 106 N/m2
• Strain  = L/Lo (engineering strain)
• Elastic Modulus or Young’s Modulus
E =  /  when  << 1
• Poisson Ratio  = - L / A
L

A

1
Mechanical Properties of Metals
and Alloys: Definitions and Units
• Shear Stress  = F/A, MPa = 106 N/m2
• Shear Strain  = tan 
• Shear Modulus G =  /  when  << 1
F
E
A G
2(1  )
for linear elastic materials
F
F 

F 2
 Young’s Modulus
• Measure of resistance against elastic
deformation
• Direction-dependent
– For iron, average E = 205 GPa;
– E(111) = 280 GPa; E(100) = 125 GPa

3
 Yield Strength
• Measure of the stress level at which
permanent or plastic deformation begins
• 0.2% offset yield strength defined for
metallic systems
Material Yield Strength (MPa)
Annealed 1100 Al alloys 35
Annealed 304 SS 200
Aged 7075 Al alloys 500
Ti-6Al-4V 800
17-7PH SS 1200 4
A “Typical” Stress-Strain Curve
True stress/strain
u Ultimate tensile strength
Eng. stress/strain
y Yield strength

QuickTime™ and a

Stress
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a
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0.2% strain
Strain

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 Plastic Strain

     
tot el pl E pl


Stress

1 2 3

Strain

plastic strain elastic strain

total strain 6
 Hardness
• Rockwell
• Vickers
• Knoop
• …..

7
 Vickers Hardness
• (4-face) Pyramidal diamond indentor
• Indent at load P
• Measure area Atotal = Aproj / cos 68o
• HV = P / Atotal

Indentor ( = 136o) Projected indented area 8

 Plastic Deformation
• When stressed beyond elastic limit, metals
often develop slip bands
• Slip band due to sliding of crystallographic
planes

9
 Slip Bands
Side view

Top view

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TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

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200 
 Critical Shear Stress
~0.5 R

2R

• Expect shear stress to initiate permanent or plastic

deformation to be about 1/4 G
• More precise analysis gives about 1/10 G
• Experiment: 1/100 to 1/1000 G
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 Critical Shear Stress
Why is the actual shear strength so much smaller?
Reason: Presence of dislocations

• Atoms do not have to slide all at the same time

• Dislocation-free solids are much stronger (whiskers,
thin films, and small particles) 12
 Key Points
• Low stress  elastic (reversible) deformation
• High stress  plastic (permanent)
deformation)
• For design  yield strength (0.2% offset YS),
which is related to hardness
• Strength less than expected  presence of
dislocations

13
 Strengthening Strategies
• Solid-solution strengthening
• Work- or strain-hardening
• Precipitation strengthening
• Grain refinement

14
 Solid-Solution Strengthening
• Impurity atoms tend to collect around dislocations
- reduction of elastic strain energy
• It costs energy to detach dislocations from
impurity atoms ---> solid-solution strengthening

400

Tensile
Strength
(MPa)

200
0 50 Ni %
15
Advantage: no major loss of ductility
 Work- or Strain-Hardening
• Plastic deformation increases the concentration of
dislocations
• Dislocations interfere the motion of other
dislocations
• Straining --> hardening Disadvantage: loss of ductility
400

Tensile
Strength
(MPa)

% cold work
200 16
0 50
 Precipitation Strengthening
• Hard precipitates are obstacles against dislocation
motion
• Dislocations loop around hard precipitates
• Shear stress needed to loop around hard
precipitates is inversely proportional to the
distance between precipitates
• Yield strength  precipitate concentration
• Possible to increase strength without major loss of
ductility

17
 Lake Villa Bridge
using NUCu70W Steels

S. Vaynman and M.E. Fine

Steel Comp. Wt. %: 0.07 C, 1.36 Cu,
18
0.89 Ni, 0.69 Mn, 0.40 Si, 0.04 Nb
 Composition - 3D atom probe

Box dimension: 14  14  101 nm3

Composition: 1.36 Cu, 0.85 Ni, 0.45 Mn, 0.06 C
Solution-treated and directly aged to maximum strength at 500 C
Cu Ni (Fe not shown)

Precipitate is Cu-Fe alloy

19
Isheim, Gagliano, Seidman and Fine
 Grain Refinement
• Grain boundaries act as obstacles against
dislocation motion (due to different grain
orientations)
• Some grains less strained than others
• For grain size ~ 10 nm or less, no dislocation
• Ductility maintained

Hall-Petch relationship
y   o  kd1/ 2
20
Enhanced Hardness in
Nanocrystalline Cu

21
 Creep
• Continued elongation at constant load
• High-temperature phenomenon for most structural
alloys (T ~ 0.3 - 0.5 Tm)
• For low Tm materials (Pb, Sn, In, polymers etc),
room temperature is high temperature

strain

time
22
 Coble Creep
applied stress

direction of
atomic
diffusion

grain boundary
under tension

grain boundary
under
compression
applied stress
23
 Nano or Not Nano
• Fine-grained metals are stronger than
coarse-grained metals at room temperature
• At high temperatures, fine-grained metals
are weaker because of creep

24
Creep due to Dislocation Climb

• Dislocation-vacancy interaction
• Occurs even in single crystals
25
 Larsen-Miller Parameter
Useful for prediction of creep life at one temperature
based on data at another temp
 Q 
Ý K exp
n

 kBT 

1  Q 
tr  exp 
K ' n
kBT 


Q
 T(log 10 tr  log 10 K 'n log 10  )  T(log 10 tr C)
 B
2.3k
26
 Recovery of Plastically
Deformed Materials
• After mechanical deformation (cold-working),
many defects/dislocations are produced
• Recovery by annealing
• Recovery temperature depends on impurity
content and concentration of defects

27
 600
Recryst. Temp (C)

550
Ti
500

450 Fe
Co
400

350

300
0 0.04 0.095 0.19 0.385 0.48
concn (at. %)

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 Toughness

failure
brittle material

failure
stress

ductile
material

strain

29
 Toughness
• Often measured using the Charpy test, as
the amount of energy required to break a
sample with certain geometry
• Toughness decreases with temperature
• Slower decrease in FCC metals compared
with BCC metals, due to more slip systems
available at room temperature

30
Toughness of Steels: Effect of Grain Size
FCC metals

Fine-grained steel

Toughness
Coarse-grained steel

Temperature

31
Toughness of Steels: Effect of Carbon

Increasing carbon content

Toughness

Temperature

32
 Flaws
• Previous discussion: actual strength < theoretical
strength due to the presence of dislocations
• Another reason: surface or internal flaws

o
Local radius = r

Region of 2a Region of
amplified amplified
stress stress
o

33
Stress Amplification by Flaws
 a 1/ 2
   o 1 2  
 r  
 

Revised failure criterion


 a 1/ 2 E
 o1 2  
 r  
  10

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
 Crack Propagation
With a pre-existing crack of length 2a, the critical
stress for propagation c is given by:

GE 1/ 2

 c   
 a 
where E = elastic modulus, G = 2 (s + p),
energy required to create a new surface

Parameter controlling crack propagation  (a)1/2.
35
 Fracture Toughness
Define stress intensity factor K as:
K  Y a

where Y is a geometric factor. The critical

stress intensity factor Kc is known as

fracture toughness

36
 Fracture Toughness
Kc depends on how the crack is opened -
mode (I, II, III)

I II

III
II
III

37
Fracture Toughness for Selected Materials
Materials KIc (MPa-m1/2)

7075-T651 24

2024-T3 44

Ti-6Al- 4V 55

4340 tempered @425C 87

Concrete 0.2-1.4

Soda-lime glass 0.7-0.8

Alumi na 2.7-5.0

Polyca rbona te 2.2

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 Fatigue Failure
• Load varying with time
• Failure occurs at stress levels below ultimate
tensile strength
• Common failure mode in dynamic structures
(aircraft, bridges and machine components)

Applied
stress Time

39
 S-N Curve

Stress
Endurance limit

Number of
cycles to failure

40
 Slip Irreversibility

Forward slip
Reverse slip

41
 Coffin-Manson Relationship

N f   p  between -0.5 and -
1 (depends on test
environment)

Nf


p
42
 Environmental Effects
• Fatigue life can be ten times longer in
vacuum than in air
• Ductility of certain intermetallics (e.g.,
Ni3Al) depends on moisture
• Tin whisker formation in air

43
 Ductility of Ni3Al vs. Pressure
50

Ductility to Fracture (%)

40
Ion gauge off

30
Ion gauge on
20

10

0 -12
10 10-9 10-6 10 -3 100 103
Testing Pressure (Torr)
Ref: E. P. George, C. T. Liu and D. P. Dope, Scr. Met., Vol 30, 37 (1994).
 Moisture-induced Embrittlement

Grain boundary cracks

Water vapor dissociates
to produce H
Tensile loading
H diffuses to crack tips,
resulting in embrittlement
Tin Whiskers

46
 Material Selection Example
Consider the choice of materials for a wire of
length L and radius r that is being used to
support a load W.
Requirements: Wire length L
1. Strain less than max and radius r

2. Mass as small as possible

W
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 Material Selection Example
W
1.  E max
r 2

2. m  ( r 2 L )

W LW 
3. m  L 
E max  max E


---> Maximize E/

 48
 Lessons Learned from Chapter 4
• Plastic deformation due to motion of dislocations
• Four strengthening strategies and examples of applications
• Creep
• Concept of toughness and examples
• Fatigue
• Environmental effects
• Materials selection

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