MSE 2211
Crystal Defect,
Deformation and Fracture
Lecture 01
Lecture 01
Topic: Strengthening Mechanisms
Reference: Meyers and Chawla (Chapter 10)
PRECIPITATION HARDENING
• Precipitation-hardening, or age—hardening, is a very versatile
method of strengthening certain metallic alloys.
• Two important alloy systems that exploit this strengthening technique
are aluminium alloys and nickel-based superalloys.
• Figure 10.11 (a) shows a typical example of an Al—Cu alloy, with θ
(CuAl2) precipitates at the grain boundaries and θ’ (Cu2Al) precipitates
the grain interiors.
(b) Al3Li precipitates in Al–Li alloy
(TEM, dark field). (Courtesy of K. S.
Vecchio.)
• The aging treatment involves the precipitation of a series of metastable
and stable precipitates out of a homogeneous, supersaturated solid
solution.
• Various metastable structures offer different levels of resistance to
dislocation motion.
• Figure 10.12 shows the variation in hardness with aging time in the
aluminium—copper system.
• Also shown are the different types of precipitate that occur during the
aging treatment.
• Peak hardness or strength corresponds to a critical distribution of
• The strengthening in these systems has its origin in the interaction of
dislocations with the particles.
• In general, the interaction depends on the dimensions, strength,
spacing, and amount of the precipitate.
• The supersaturated solid solution is obtained by sudden cooling from
a sufficiently high temperature at which the alloy has a single phase.
The heat treatment that causes precipitation of the solute is called
AGING.
• The alloy must, at least:
1. Form a monophase solid solution at high temperatures.
2. Reject a finely dispersed precipitate during aging, i.e., the phase
diagram must show a declining solvus line.
The precipitation treatment consists of the following steps:
• 1. Solubilization
• 2. Quenching
• 3. Aging
The nature of precipitate/matrix interface produced during the aging
treatment can be coherent, semicoherent, or incoherent.
SHAPE OF THE AGING CURVE
Non-uniform precipitation
Under certain conditions, precipitation may occur in a non-uniform manner,
and often grain boundaries are favoured sites.
• PFZ
• British De Havilland company built the first commercial jet aircraft in 1952.
• After four accidents confidence in the new plane was destroyed and so
was British supremacy in commercial aircraft.
(a) The plane used square windows, at whose corners fatigue cracks started
to propagate.
(b) The alloy and heat treatment used in the aircraft exhibited the
microstructure shown in Figure 10.17(a).
PFZ
DISLOCATION–PRECIPITATE
INTERACTION
• 1. The precipitate particles are impenetrable to the dislocations
• 2. The precipitate particles are penetrable to dislocations
GRAIN BOUNDARY
STRENGTHENING
• Aspects of GB-
• At low temperaturesact as strong obstacles to dislocation motion.
• Condition of compatibility among the neighbouring grains during the deformation
• At high temperatures, the grain boundaries function as sites of weakness.
• Grain boundaries can act as sources and sinks for vacancies at high temperatures
• In polycrystalline materials, the individual grains usually have a random orientation
with respect to one another.
STRAIN HARDENING
End of today!!
