Low Temperature Behavior of

Metals

CHEM-E5110 Metallic Materials

Lecture 8
 Contents

• Tensile properties of metals at low

temperatures
• Fracture of metals at low temperature
– Ductile and brittle behavior in ferritic steels
– Fracture surfaces
– Measurement of fracture toughness
– Crack growth phenomena
– Ductile – brittle transition
 Metals with FCC-Lattice
Domain I below
T1:
• serrated
yielding takes
place.
Domain II
between T1 and
Md:
• plastic strain
induced γ→α’
phase
transformation
takes place.
Domain III above
The mechanisms of plastic flow at extremely low Md: smooth
temperatures illustrated by means of the plot of yield stress plastic flow in
(Rp02) against temperature (T) for 316LN stainless steel. austenite
B. Skoczeń, J. Bielski, J. Tabin, International Journal of Plasticity, Volume 55,
2014, 198–218, Multiaxial constitutive model of discontinuous plastic flow at
cryogenic temperatures; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2013.09.004
 Metals with CPH Lattice
Shear stress – strain curves for single crystals of Cadmium below RT.
 Metals with BCC Lattice
The effect of measurement temperature on the strain-stress curves of bcc
metals

Engineering Stress

Engineering Strain
Fracture in Metals and Alloys
 How do materials break?
• Ductile vs. brittle fracture
• Principles of fracture mechanics
• Stress concentration
• Impact fracture testing
• Fatigue (cyclic stresses)
• Crack initiation and propagation
• Factors that affect fatigue behavior
• Creep (time dependent deformation)
• Stress and temperature effects
• Alloys for high-temperature use
 Fracture
• Two fracture modes: ductile and brittle
• Classification is based on the ability of a material to
experience plastic deformation
• Ductile and brittle are relative terms and depend on the
situation
– Ductility can be quantified in terms of percent elongation and
percent reduction in area
– Ductility is function of temperature, the strain rate, and the stress
state
• Most metals and metal alloys are generally ductile, whereas
ceramics are generally brittle (both with exceptions)
 Ductile vs. Brittle Fracture

Ductile materials exhibit plastic deformation (absorb

energy) before fracture
 Ductile Fracture by Three Steps
In uniaxial tensile test:
1. The specimen forms a neck, and cavities form within the
necked region
2. The cavities in the neck coalesce into a crack in the center of
the specimen and propagate toward the surface of the
specimen in a direction perpendicular to the applied stress
3. When crack nears the surface, the direction of the crack to 45˚
to the tensile axis and a cup-and-cone fracture results
Ductile Fracture

Fracture surface
Light areas with spherical
‘cup-like’ dimples in between
Characteristics of Brittle Fracture
• No appreciable plastic deformation
• Crack propagation is very fast
• Crack propagates nearly perpendicular to the
direction of the applied stress
• Crack often propagates by cleavage -
breaking of atomic bonds along specific
crystallographic planes (cleavage planes).
Brittle Fracture by Three Steps
1. Plastic deformation concentrates dislocations
along slip planes at obstacles
2. Shear stresses are built in places where
dislocations are blocked, and as a result
microcracks are nucleated
3. Further stress propagates the microcracks, and
stored elastic strain energy may also contribute
to the propagation of the cracks.
Transgranular Brittle Fracture

Crack propagation via Cleavage planes from grain

interior of grains to grain
Intergranular Brittle Fracture

Crack propagation along grain boundaries

 Fracture Processes
• Fracture process normally occurs in several
stages
– Ductile material: plastic deformation in the vicinity
of an advancing crack => proceeds relatively slowly
and resists further extension unless increased stress
=> stable
– Brittle material: crack may spread extremely rapidly
=> unstable
• Why ductile materials sometimes behave
brittle?
Fracture Mechanics
Influence of Cracks
Flaws or cracks always exist on the
surface or interior of the body of
the material.

These flaws are detrimental to the

fracture strength because they act
as stress raisers, i.e., the applied
stress is amplified at the vicinity of
the flaws.

Magnitude of amplification
depends on crack orientation and
geometry.
 Stress Concentration
σ max

σ0

For an ellip6cal shape crack oriented perpendicular to

the stress:
a Stress at r = 0 cannot increase to infinity
σ max = 2σ 0 because the metal deforms plastically
ρt as soon as s exceeds yield stress
 Stress Concentration
a
Stress concentration factor: K t = σ max / σ 0 = 2
ρt

What is the magnitude of the maximum stress that exists at

the tip of an internal crack having a radius of curvature of
1.9 x 10-4 mm (0,19µm) and the crack length of 3.8 x 10-2
mm (38µm) when a tensile stress of 140 MPa is applied?

a s0 = 140 MPa
σ max = 2σ 0 a = 0.5 x of 3.8 x 10-2 mm
ρt rt = 1.9 x 10-4 mm

2800 MPa = 20 x 140 MPa

 Stress Concentration
rp –the width of the plastic zone

The smaller the yield stress, the bigger the plastically deformed area
The bigger the plastically deformed area, the better ability to absorb
energy:
” Soft material is ductile
material”
 Fracture Toughness
The stress intensity factor K (although similar to stress concentration
factor Kt, it is not the same) is given by:
K = Yσ π a
K provides a convenient specification
of stress distribution around the flaw.
The crack propagates when K
exceeds a critical value Kc called the
fracture toughness, which is a
material parameter. For plane strain
fracture:
K Ic = Y σ C π a
Y is a dimensionless parameter
depending on crack and specimen
geometries.
Modes of Crack Displacement

Mode I Mode II Mode III

tensile sliding tearing

Most common - KIC

Modes of Crack Displacement

Mode I Mode II Mode III

tensile sliding tearing

Most common - KIC

 Crack in Aluminum Alloy
Task: Using the equa-on KIC = sf √(pa) plot fracture stress for
aluminum alloy 7075-T651 versus surface crack size a (mm) for a
values 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm.

For Al 7075-T651:
KIC = 24.2 MPa√m
sy = 495 MPa
K IC
σ=
πa
Fracture Toughness
Fracture: Ductile Material
 Fracture: Brittle Material
Local stress ahead of the crack tip can
approach very high values very near to
the crack tip provided that blunting of
sharp crack tip does not occur

Cleavage
fracture
Fracture Toughness Properties of
Metals

Impact Fracture Testing

 CHARPY-V -Test
• SFS-EN 10 045
• Bar of square cross section, into which a V-notch is machined,
is placed to impact testing apparatus and stroked by hammer.
The energy absorption is a measure of the impact energy and
is defined in Joules. This is used as an ability to material to
resist impact/shock loading.
• Does not measure materials properties
• Impact energies are of interest mainly in a relative sense and
for comparison – no absolute values
• Estimates the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature
• Easy, fast and cheep test
CHARPY-V -Test

KV = 65 J
CHARPY-V -Test
Ductile-to-Brittle Transition
 Temperature Dependency

KV
Ductile fracture

Quality demand:
KV > 20 J when
T = - 21 ℃
Brittle fracture

Transition 0℃
Temp. Temperature
Influence of C-Content on
Transition Temperature
 Influence of Ferrite Strengthening
on Impact Toughness
10
• Solid solution
bo n
hardening r

Change in transition T ºC
ca
5 e ning ,
h a rd g.
• Dislocation o n
luti DislocaCon
s t re n
s o
strengthening So l i d t i o n H a rd.
Precipit a
0 Grai
• Precipitation n siz
e str
engt
hardening he ni
ng
-5
• Grain size
refinement
-10
0 2,5 5,0 7,5 10,0
Increase in Yield Strength (MPa)
 Fracture Toughness Testing
Three-point bending test Compact tension test

• Application of force to induce a stress to propagate the pre-

established crack
• Load and deformation are recorded and the crack length is
measured from the broken test piece
• Fracture toughness is calculated based on the fracture mode
Fracture Toughness Testing

Importance of the sample geometry

 Summary
• Metallic materials show different response to impact loading
depending on the materials and the temperature
• Typically medium strength ferritic alloys display transition behavior
from ductile to brittle behavior as the temperature is decreasing,
while ductile FCC materials remain ductile with only some reduction
in toughness and high strength alloys have low ductility, which is
only slight reducing with temperature
• Transition temperature can be determined conveniently by Charpy
–V tests
• Fracture mechanics and expensive testing of precracked specimens
are needed for accurate analysis of fracture toughness properties of
materials