Asssignment-6

Heat treatment and Surface hardening I

NPTEL-Mooc-5th week
1. The critical homogeneous nucleation rate of 106 m-3 s-1 occurs at 300 K during a liquid
to solid phase transformation when the nucleation energy for critical sized nucleus is
1 x 10-19 J. The interfacial energy between the liquid-solid interface is 0.08 J m-2 . If
the interfacial energy is increased by 10%, the nucleation rate will be_________ m-3 s1

[Answer: 345.35, Range: 335 to 350]

2. During a phase transformation, nucleation rate of 108 m-3 s-1 occurs at 300K when the
critical nucleation energy is 2 x 10-19 J. If the nucleation energy for critical sized
nucleus is decreased by 21%, the nucleation rate will be_________ x 10 12 m-3 s-1 .
[Answer: 2.54 m-3 s-1 Range: 2.2 to 2.8 m-3 s-1 ]
3. During a heterogeneous nucleation (in the shape of a spherical cap), if the energies
associated with various interfaces are SL = 0.6 J m-2 , SM = 0.01 J m-2 and LM = 0.4 J
m-2 , then the ratio of (G* ) hetero to (G* ) homo is_________.
[Answer: 0.081 Range: 0.075 to 0.085]
4. The critical homogeneous nucleation rate is 10 6 m-3 s-1 at 300 K. If it is desired to
achieve a nucleation rate of 108 m-3 s-1 , the nucleation energy for critical sized nucleus
(G* ) should be decreased by_________ %. [Assume Io = 1042 m-3 s-1 and GD is
significantly smaller than G*]
[Answer: 5.5 Range: 5 to 7]
5. In heterogeneous nucleation, if the contact angle is 00 , then the barrier to nucleation
will be _________.
[Answer: exactly 0]
6. The radius of critical nucleus during homogeneous nucleation is 0.9 nm. The radius of
critical nucleus (in the shape of spherical cap) during heterogeneous nucleation with a
contact angle of 60o under the same condition will be_________.
[Answer: exactly 0.9 nm]
7. Two specimens of the same material have the average grain sizes 10 m and 40 m.
During the solid state phase transformation, the nucleation rate (assuming that the

nucleation occurs heterogeneously on grain boundaries) will be higher in the material

having grain size of_________ m under the identical conditions.
[Answer: exactly 10]
8. During an interface controlled growth of copper, the activation barrier for an atomic
jump is 8 x 10-20 J. If the jump distance is 0.15 nm, the growth rate at 800 K
(assuming a large undercooling) will be______ m/s. [Assume lattice vibration
frequency = 1013 s-1 .
[Answer: 1, Range: 0.8 to 1.2]
9. Which of the following is incorrect for diffusion controlled growth?
a) Parabolic growth
b) Growth is proportional to supersaturation
c) Velocity is inversely proportional to time
d) Growth rate is constant for a given undercooling
10. During diffusion controlled growth, if the growth rate is G at time t, then at time 4t,
the growth rate will be ______ times G.
[Answer: exactly 0.5]