LINE DEFECTS DISLOCATIONS

Line defects or dislocations are line along which whole rows of atoms in a sloid are
arranged anomalously. The irregularity in spacing is most obvious along the line of
dislocation. Line defects could strengthen or weaken a solid structure. The theory
describing fields of defects was originilally developed by vito volterra in 1907.
However the term dislocation was coined by g.i taylor in 1934. In general there are
two main types of line defects.
1. Edge dislocation
2. Screw dislocation.
Each type of dislocation can be further describe with aids of respective diagrams.

Edge dislocation

This is a defect whereby an extra half plane of atoms is introduced somewhere in the
middle of the crystal structure, distorting any nearby planes of atoms. This extra
plane then moves if there is a presence of sufficient force on one side of the crystal
structure by eother joining or breaking bonds with other planes until it finally reaches
the grain boundary
Figure 1.2 shows the extra half plane of atom being introduce mid way of the crystal.
In this case the line of dislocation is the inner end of the half plane that sit inside the
crystal. It is also knows as burger vectors.
Figure 1.1 shows the movement of the halp plane atom travelling through the other
plane and reaching the grain boundary.

Screw

A screw dislocation is much harder to visualize. It is a process of shear ripple

extending from side to side. Imagine cutting a crystal along a plane and slipping one
half across the other by a lattice vector, the halves fitting back together without
leaving a defect. If the cut only goes part way through the crystal and it slipped, the
boundary of the cut is a screw dislocation.

As shown In figure 2.1, the crystal is cut from point a to b. then the plane slips overs
one atom then fits back together without leaving a defect. The process continues
until grain boundary is reached.

Strain hardening

Strain hardening also known as work hardening is a process when a metal is

strained beyond the yield point. The stress should be increases to produce additional
plastic deformation and the ,metal then apparently becomes more stronger and
difficult to deform.
Before work hardening, the lattice of the material exhibits a regular, nearly defectfree pattern (almost no dislocations). The defect-free lattice can be created or
restored at any time by annealing. As the material is work hardened it becomes
increasingly saturated with new dislocations, and more dislocations are prevented
from nucleating (a resistance to dislocation-formation develops). This resistance to
dislocation-formation manifests itself as a resistance to plastic deformation; hence,
the observed strengthening.

Based on graph plotted in figure 1.1, we can observe that the yield strength of the
metal increases with work hardening. Although the ductility decreases along with the
increase in strength , in a particular application, harder metal will still be better.
This can be easily demonstrated by a small pin. Try bending the pin once and
bending it on the bent part again. It appears to be harder to bend a bent portion of
the pin. Further bending will then cause the pin to break at the bent point. it shows
that the strength of the pin increased but also decreased the ductility.

Work hardening can be desirable and undesirable:-

Desirable work hardening;

Cold working is when a metal is shape below its recrystallization temperature in
processes such as bending, squeezing and shearing.

Undesirable work hardening;

Machining as early passes of a cutter inadvertently work harden the workpiece
surface casuing damage to cutter during later passes.

A grain boundary is the interface between two grains or crystallites in a polycrystalin

material. These boundaries are defects in the crystal structure that tend to decrease
the eectricsl anf thermal conductivity of the material. Most grain boundaries are
preferred site for corrosion or precipitation of new phases of the solid.

Figure above is the perfect visualization of a grain boundary. It shows the region of 2
different grains separated by a grain boundary.

This image shows the grain boundary of a polycrystalline material.

Boundaries are further separated into 2 based;

-Low angle bound
Misorientation less than 15 degrees
High angle boundary
Misorientation is greater than about 11 degrees

Excess volume is another important property of s grain boundary. It expresses how

much expansion is induced in the presence of a grain boundary and is thought that
the degree and susceptibility is proportional to this. Excess volume is actually the
change in length rather than volume as it is stated in its name.

The movement of hagb affects the recrystallization and grain growth while the
movement of lagb influences recovery and nucleation of recrystaliarion;