MID TERM TEST, Feb.

27st, 2014 DURATION: 2 HRS

Student No.

Name

McGill University
Dept. of Mining and Materials Engineering

MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING MIME-260

MIDTERM

Examiner: Prof. Jun Song Date: Thursday, Feb. 27st, 2014

14h30-16h30

Instructions

1. Read the instructions carefully.

2. Put your name and ID# on this page and every page after (in the page
header) except the formula page.
3. Read each question all the way through before starting it. The parts may be
connected.
4. Write your solutions in the space provided below the relevant question. No
additional pages!
5. Use the blank sides of this examination book for rough work.
6. You are permitted TRANSLATION dictionaries ONLY.
7. STANDARD CALCULATOR permitted ONLY.
8. This is a CLOSED BOOK examination. No documentation allowed, see
formula sheet.
9. The value of each question is respectively indicated under the section title.

For instructor’s use only

Question 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
Points
16 13 14 14 13 12 18 100

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Student No. Name:

Question 1 (4 × 4 = 16 pts)
A. Determine the Miller indices of the following planes within a cubic unit cell.
(A.1) The plane passes ½,0,1; ½,0,0; and 0,1,0

Answer: (2 1 0)

(A.2) The plane passes 1,0,0; 0,0,¼; and ½,1,0

Answer: (2 1 8)

B. Determine the Miller-Bravais indices of the following directions within a hexagonal unit cell.
(B.1) Note: M is the face center of the shaded plane.

M Solution: [101 1]



(B.2)

Solution: [1210]



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Student No. Name:

Question 2 (6 + 7 = 13 pts)
(A) ZnS has a cubic unit cell in which Zn atoms (white) occupy the corner and face-center sites while S
atoms (black) are enclosed inside the cell. Each S is neighboring 4 Zn with the nearest Zn-S distance
being 0.23 nm. How many Zn atoms and how many S atoms are there in each unit cell (6 pts)?

Solution:

# of Zn: 4 # of S: 4

(B) SiO2 has a tetrahedral unit cell illustrated in the figure below, with Silicon atom of radius 1.2 ×10−8
cm at the center and Oxygen atom of radius 0.6 × 10−8 cm at four of the eight corners. (assuming hard-
sphere model) Calculate the lattice constant, a, of the tetrahedral unit cell for SiO2 (7 pts).

Solution:

3a
 rSi  rO
2

a

2 rSi  rO   2  (1.2 10 8
 0.6 10 8 )
3 3
 2.08 108 cm

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Student No. Name:

Question 3 (7 + 7 = 14 pts)
Consider a crystalline material that has a hexagonal close-packed (HCP) structure, with lattice constant a
= 3.2 × 10−10 m and c/a = 1.633. This material has an atomic weight of 24 g/mol. Answer the following
questions (assuming hard-sphere model):
(A) Compute the density of the material. (7 pts)

Solution:

# of atoms per unit cell: 6

3 3a 2c
Volume of the unit cell:
2

Thus the density is

6  24 g/mol

1.633   3.2 1010 m   6.02 1023 mol 1
3 3 3

2
 1.72 106 g/m 3

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Student No. Name:

(B) Suppose that the material can undergo a phase transformation from HCP to Face-Centered Cubic
(FCC) structure. Denote the FCC lattice constant as a1. If the material’s density increases by 20% after
the HCPFCC transformation, what is the relation between a and a1? (7 pts)

Solution:

For HCP:
The unit cell volume is:
3 3a 2c
2
There are 6 of atoms per cell, thus the volume per atom is:
3 3a 2c 3a 2c

2 6 4

For FCC:
The unit cell volume is:
a13
There are 4 of atoms per cell, thus the volume per atom is:
a13
4

Since the density increases by 20%, we have

1 1.2
3
 2
 a13  5 3a 2c / 6
a1 / 4 3a c / 4
1/3
 a1  5 3a 2c / 6 

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Student No. Name:

Question 4 (7 + 7 = 14 pts)
Consider a material, being a single crystal, has a HCP crystal structure and a melting temperature of
1500oC. Assuming the energy for vacancy formation is 0.75 eV/atom, and the energy for self-interstitial
formation is 1.75 eV/atom. Answer the following questions:
(A) Calculate the number of atom sites that are vacant per unit cell at temperature = 1000 oC (7 pts).

Solution:

For each HCP unit cell, there are 6 atoms. Thus the # of vacancies per unit cell is

 0.75 
6  exp   5 
 6. 45? 03
 (1000  273)  8.62 10 

(B) At what temperature the population of vacancies is 10,000 times the population of self-interstitials
within the material? (7 pts)

Solution:

The population of vacancies and self-interstitials within the material are (denote the # of lattice atoms as
N0):

 0.75 
N v  N0 exp   
 k BT 
 1.75 
N SI  N 0 exp   
 k BT 
With
N SI  104 N v
We have
0.75 1.75
ln N 0   ln104  ln N 0 
k BT k BT
1 1
  ln104  T   1260 K
k BT 8.62 105  ln104

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Student No. Name:

Question 5 (13 pts)

Consider a cylindrical rod, 50 cm long, having a diameter of 12.5 mm. The rod is subjected to a tensile
load. If the rod is to experience neither plastic deformation nor an elongation of more than 1.6 mm but no
less than 0.7 mm, when the applied load is 29 000 N, which of the four metals or alloys listed below are
possible candidates?
(E: elastic modulus; σy: yield strength; σt: tensile strength)
Material E (GPa) σy (MPa) σt (MPa)
Aluminum 69 255 420
Brass 101 344 420
Copper 110 207 275
Steel 207 448 552

Solution:
The loading generates a stress of
29000
 2
 2.36 108 Pa = 236 MPa
 12.5 10  3
 
 2 

The elongation induced by the stress is then

236 103 118
l  50 10   (mm)
E E
Which gives
l Al  1.71 mm
l Brass  1.17 mm
lCopper  1.07 mm
lSteel  0.57 mm

 First the stress need to be smaller than the yield strength to avoid plastic deformation, while
excludes the choice of Copper;
 Second the elongation needs to be between 0.7 and 1.6 mm, while excludes Al and Steel.

Thus the choice is Brass.

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Student No. Name:

Question 6: DEFINITION and SHORT-ANSWER (4 × 3 = 12 pts)

6.1. List two types of point defects that cause local contraction in the host lattice (3 pts).

Solution: vacancy and substitutional atom with radius smaller than the host atom.

6.2. In many metals, one method to enhance the material’s strength is to increase the fraction of grain
boundaries within the material. Explain why (3 pts)

Solution: because the grain boundary impedes dislocation motions.

6.3. In an alloy, what characteristics decide if the solute atoms will form a solid solution or a second
phase in the solvent? (3 pts)

Solution:
 Physical concentration of the solute atoms
 Difference in atomic radius (compared to the host atom)
 Difference in electronegativity (compared to the host atom)

6.4. Explain why metallic materials tend to be densely packed (3 pts)

Solution:
 Atomic radii of metal atoms are similar
 Metallic bond is non-directional
 Electron “sea” shields ion-ion interactions

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Student No. Name:

Question 7: TRUE OR FALSE (PLEASE EXPLAIN IF STATEMENT IF FALSE)

3 pts each question. In the case when explanation is required, the explanation weights 1 out of 3 pts.

7.1. A HCP structure with the ideal c/a ratio has a higher Atomic Packing Factor (APF) than the Body-
Centered Cubic (BCC) structure.

True

7.2. The atomic arrangement on a (1 1 0) plane in the BCC structure is the same as the atomic
arrangement on a (0 0 0 1) plane in the HCP structure.

False. (1 1 1) plane in FCC has the same atomic arrangement.

7.3. In general a short-chain polymer is more likely to be a crystalline material than a long-chain
polymer.

True

7.4. Sharing electrons is the mechanism for the establishment of an ionic bond.

False. It is the mechanism for covalent bond.

7.5. In the BCC structure, each atom has 12 nearest-neighbors.

False. In BCC each atom has 8 nearest-neighbors.

7.6. For a metal, necking occurs before the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is reached.

False. Necking occurs after UTS is reached.

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Student No. Name:

Do not write below this line

EQUATIONS

[u ' v ' w ']  [u v w]

(h k l )  (h k i l )
u  (2u ' v ') / 3, v  (2v ' u ') / 3,
i  ( h  k )
t  (u  v ), w  w'
F li  lo F X 
  ,  ,  ,   G    Y
AO lo A0 Z Z
E
E  2G 1   , K 
3 1  2 
total sphere volume VS  Qv   Q 
APF   , NV  N exp   , N SI  N exp   SI 
total unit cell volume VC  k BT   kBT 

 l f  lo   A  AF  y
% EL    100 % RA   0  100 U r   d
 lo   A0  0

1  y   y
2
1 1
U r   y y U r   y y   y   
2 2 2  E  2E

li
T  ln 1   
F
T   T  ln  T   1   
Ai lo

 T  KTn TS MPa   3.45HB

Avogadro's number = 6.02 1023 mol1 T ( K )  T ( o C)  273

Boltzmann constant = 8.62 105 eV K1  1.38 1023 J K1

MPa = 106 Pa, GPa = 109 Pa, Psi = 6895 Pa

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