Classification of Materials

In Engineering Metallurgy

Materials are classified into 4 categories.

Metals
Ceramics
Polymers
Composites

And their mutual properties

METALS
These may include metals and alloys.
Ex- Aluminum , Nickel , Copper , Iron , etc, or their
alloys.
These are pretty much regularly arranged
compared to others.

Basic Properties
Good conductors of heat and electricity.
Relatively stiff and strong yet ductile.
A fresh polished surface has lustrous appearance.
Capable to take large deformations and not transparent.

Ceramics
These are compounds between metals and non
metals.
Mostly oxides , nitrides , carbides. Ex- Al2O3, Sic ,
etc.
Clay materials , Cement as well as Glass come
under Ceramics.

Basic Properties.
Act as good Insulators generally.
Stiff and Strong, comparable to metals in
strength.
Resistant to high temperature and harsh
conditions.
They lack ductility and susceptible to fracture.

Polymers
These are essentially organic compounds with
Carbon as their back
bone
Ex- Polyethylene , nylon , polystyrene , etc .
Lighter compared to other materials.
Most of household items an kitchen ware are
made of polymers.

Basic Properties
Extremely ductile and pliable i.e., plastic.
Inert to chemical changes during the usage.
These get soften even in the modest
temperatures.
Insulative properties and non magnetic.

Composites
These are combination of metals , polymers and
ceramics .
Most of them are synthetic.
Ex Glass Fiber.
Generally these are strong , stiff and brittle.
Used in aerospace applications and modern sports
equipment

Comparison between Types of

Materials

Density of Materials.

Elastic Modulus

Tensile Strength

Resistance to Fracture

Electrical Conductivities

Advanced Materials

Semi Conductors
Super Conductors
Smart Materials
Bio Materials
NanoEngineered Materials

Mechanical Properties of Metals

Stress-strain Relationship
Stressis aphysical quantitythat expresses the internalforcesthat
neighboringparticlesof acontinuous material exert on each other.
Strain,describes relative deformation or change in shape and size
ofelastic,plastic, and fluid materials under applied forces.
Engineering stress and strain (also sometimes called nominal
stress and strain) are calculated based on the original dimensions of
the material in question.
True stress and strain are calculated based on the actual
dimensions of the material.

Elastic Deformation
Stress-strain Behavior:
The degree to which a structure deforms or strains depends on
the magnitude of an imposed stress. For most metals that are
stressed in tension and at relatively low levels, stress and strain
are proportional to each other through the relationship of
Hookes law, and constant of proportionality(E) is the modulus
of elasticity.

Deformation in which stress and strain are proportional is

called Elastic Deformation . The slope of linear segment is
equal to modulus of elasticity E .This modulus may be thought
of as stiffness, or a materials resistance to elastic deformation.
Elastic deformation is nonpermanent, which means that when
the applied load is released, the piece returns to its original
shape.
There are some materials which this elastic region of stressstrain curve is not linear; hence ,It is not possible to determine
modulus of elasticity normally. Therefore secant/tangent
modulus is used in this case

On an atomic scale, macroscopic elastic strain is

manifested as small changes in the interatomic spacing
and the stretching of interatomic bonds. As a
consequence, the magnitude of the modulus of elasticity
is a measure of the resistance to separation of adjacent
atoms, that is, the interatomic bonding forces.
Modulus is proportional to the slope of the interatomic
force-separation.

Anelasticity
In most Engineering materials, there will
also exist a time dependent elastic strain
component. That is, elastic deformation
will continue after the stress application,
and upon load release some finite time is
required for complete recovery. The time
dependent elastic behaviour is known as
Anelasticity.

Elastic properties of Materials

When a tensile stress is imposed on a metal
specimen, an elastic elongation and
accompanying strain result in the direction of the
applied stress(arbitrarily taken to be in z
direction). As a result there is a lateral as well as
axial stress which create two compressive strains.
A parameter termed as Poissons ratio is defined
as ratio of the lateral and axial strains.

Plastic deformation
For most metallic materials, elastic
deformation persists only to strains of
about 0.005. As the material is
deformed beyond this point, the stress
is no longer proportional to strain and
permanent, non recoverable, or
plastic deformation occurs.

(a)Typical stress strain behavior for

a metal showing elastic and plastic
deformations, the proportional limit
P, and the yield strength
as
determined using the 0.002 strain
offset method.
(b) Representative stressstrain
behavior
found for some steels
demonstrating
the yield point phenomenon.
From an atomic perspective,
plastic deformation corresponds to
the breaking
of bonds with original atom
neighbors and then reforming
bonds with new neighbors as large
numbers of atoms or molecules
move relative to one another; upon

Yielding and Yield Strength

Yielding-the stress level at which plastic
deformation begins.
The point of yielding may be determined
as the initial departure from linearity of
the stressstrain curve : proportional
limit.
a convention has been established
wherein a straight line is constructed
parallel to the elastic portion of the
stressstrain curve at some specified
strain offset, usually 0.002. The stress
corresponding to the intersection of this
line and the stressstrain curve as it
bends over in the plastic region is defined
as the yield strength

Tensile Strength
The tensile strength TS (MPa or psi)
is the stress at the maximum on the
engineering stressstrain curve
(Figure 6.11). This corresponds to the
maximum stress that can be
sustained by a structure in tension; if
this stress is applied and maintained,
fracture will result.
However, at this maximum stress, a
small constriction or neck begins to
form at some point, and all
subsequent deformation is confined at
this neck, as indicated by the
schematic specimen insets in Figure
6.11. This phenomenon is termed
necking, and fracture ultimately
occurs at the neck. The fracture
strength corresponds to the stress at

Ductility
It is a measure of the degree of plastic deformation
that has been sustained at fracture.
A material that experiences very little or no plastic
deformation upon fracture is termed brittle
Ductility may be expressed quantitatively as either
percent elongation or percent reduction in area.
The percent elongation %EL is the percentage of
plastic strain at fracture.
Where lf is the fracture length and lo is the
original gauge length.
Percent reduction in area %RA is defined as
where Ao is the original cross-sectional area and
Af is the cross-sectional area at the point of
fracture.
Brittle materials are approximately considered to be
those having a fracture strain of less than about 5%.

Resilience
Resilience is the capacity of a material to absorb
energy when it is deformed elastically and then,
upon unloading, to have this energy recovered
The associated property is the modulus of
resilience, Ur ,which is the strain energy per unit
volume required to stress a material from an
unloaded state up to the point of yielding.

Modulus of resilience for linear elastic behavior.

Incorporating Hookes law
Thus, resilient materials are those having high
yield strengths and low moduli of elasticity; such
alloys would be used in spring applications.

Toughness
it is a measure of the ability of a
material to absorb energy up to
fracture
Fracture toughness is a property
indicative of a materials resistance to
fracture when a crack is present.
For the static (low strain rate)
situation, toughness may be
ascertained from the results of a
tensile stressstrain test. It is the area
under the curve up to the point of
fracture. The units for toughness are
the same as for resilience (i.e., energy
per unit volume of material)
For a material to be tough, it must
display both strength and ductility;
often, ductile materials are tougher

TRUE STRESS AND STRAIN

True stress is defined as the load F divided by
the instantaneous cross-sectional area over
which deformation is occurring (i.e., the neck,
past the tensile point)
True strain
If no volume change occurs during deformation
that is, if Aili=Aolo
true and engineering stress and strain are
related according to

ELASTIC RECOVERY AFTER PLASTIC

DEFORMATION
Upon release of the load during the course of
a stressstrain test, some fraction of the total
deformation is recovered as elastic strain.
During the unloading cycle, the curve traces a
near straight-line path from the point of
unloading (point D), and its slope is virtually
identical to the modulus of elasticity, or
parallel to the initial elastic portion of the
curve.
The magnitude of this elastic strain, which is
regained during unloading, corresponds to the
strain recovery .
If the load is reapplied, the curve will traverse
essentially the same linear portion in the
direction opposite to unloading; yielding will
again occur at the unloading stress level
where the unloading began. There will also be

COMPRESSIVE, SHEAR, AND

TORSIONAL DEFORMATION
Metals may experience
plastic deformation under
the influence of applied
compressive, shear, and
torsional loads. The
resulting stressstrain
behavior into the plastic
region will be similar to the
tensile counterpart
.However, for compression,
there will be no maximum,
since necking does not
occur; furthermore, the
mode of fracture will be
different from that for
tension.

HARDNESS
It is a measure of a materials resistance to
localized plastic deformation (e.g., a small dent
or a scratch).
Rockwell Hardness Tests
Brinell Hardness Tests
Knoop and Vickers Microindentation
Hardness Tests
(refer callister for the above hardness tests)
Correlation Between Hardness and Tensile
Strength

CRYSTAL STRUCTURES

Crystalline Material

It is the one in which atoms are arranged with respect to

one another are situated in a periodic array over large
atomic distances.
Many metals, ceramic materials and polymers form
crystalline structure upon solidification.
Lattice : In context of crystal structures, it refers to a 3dimesional array of points coinciding with atom positions

Unit Cell
Basic structural
unit of the crystal
structure.
It defines the
crystal structure
by virtue of its
geometry, and
atom positions
within.
Repeated entities of unit cells defines the
crystal structure

Lattice System
A unit cell of lattice system is determined by the following
lattice parameters :
A, b, c Axial Lengths
, , Interaxial Angles

Lattice Centering
It denotes the position of additional atoms other than the
corner ones in the unit cell.
They are of 4 types:
Primitive (P): lattice points on the cell corners only.
Body (I): one additional lattice point at the center of the cell.
Face (F): one additional lattice point at the center of each of
the faces of the cell.
Base (A, B or C): one additional lattice point at the center of
each of one pair of the cell faces.

Bravais Lattices
It is an infinite array of
discrete points
generated by a set of
discrete translation.
In 1850, Auguste
Bravais showed that
there are 14 possible
Bravais Lattices in 3-D
Space.
The 14 Bravais lattices
in 3 dimensions are
obtained by coupling
one of the 7lattice
systems with one of
the lattice centerings

Mettalic Crystal Structures

The atomic bonding in this group
of material is metallic and thus
non-directional in nature
For Metals, we use Hard Sphere
Model, where each sphere
represents an ion core
3 simple crystal structures are found
for most of common metals

Some Unit Cell Terms

Atomic Packing Factor : It is the
fraction of volume in aunit cellthat
is occupied by constituent particles.
Coordination Number :The
number of atoms immediately
surrounding an atom in the unit cell
or crystal structure.
Effective Atoms(Z) : It is the net
number of atoms contained in a
single unit cell

Face-Centered Cubic Unit Cell

It has identical particles on the eight corners of the
cube.
Also contains the same particles in the centres of
the six faces of the unit cell, for a total of 14
identical lattice points.
Also known as FCC unit Cell
Found in Al, Ni, Ag, Cu, Au

FCC Unit Cell

Body Centered Cubic Unit Cell

There are 8 identical particles on the eight corners
of the unit cell
And a ninth identical particle in the centre of the
body of the unit cell.
Also known as BCC unit cell
Found in Fe, V, Cr, Nb

BCC Unit Cell

Hexagonal Close Packed Unit Cell

It consists of 3 layers.
In top and the bottom layers, 6 identical particles
are at corner of a regular hexagon, with a particle
located at centre of hexagon touching all other 6
In middle layer, there are 3 identical particles
forming an equilateral triangle touching each
other and also the top and bottom layer
Known as HCP unit cell
Found in Ti, Mg, Zn, Cd

HCP Unit Cell

Polymorphism and Allotropy

When metals or non-metals have more than
one crystal structure, this phenomenon is
called Polymorphism
Eg. CrO2
Tetragonal : -phase Ambient conditions
Orthorhombic : (P42/mnm) -phase Room
Temperature
When polymorphism is found in elemental
solids, it is called Allotropy
Eg. Oxygen O2, O3, O4 and O8
Carbon Diamond, Graphite and Fullerenes

Table
Type

Coordinatio
n Number

Packing
Efficiency

Effective
Number of
atoms

Example

Simple Cubic 6

0.52

Polonium

FCC

12

0.74

Gold

BCC

0.68

Lithium

HCP

12

0.74

Magnesium

Miller Indices
Directions
Planes

Introduction
Miller indices -

A shorthand
notation to describe certain
crystallographic directions and planes
in a material. Denoted by [ ], <>, ( )
brackets. A negative number is
represented by a bar over the number.

This scheme, devised by British

mineralogist and
crystallographerWilliam Hallowes
Miller, in 1839, has the advantage of
eliminating all fractions from the
notation for a plane. In the
hexagonal system, which has four
crystallographic axes, a similar scheme
of fourBravais-Miller indicesis

Crystallographic Points
The crystallographic points are
represented as pa,qb and rc
where a,b and c are crystal
parameters. The entities p q r is
termed as the Miller index for the
point.
Miller Indices for the points are
not separated by any comma or
punctutation marks.
They are not enclosed in any
square brackets or parenthesis.

Crystallographic Directions
Vector repositioned (if necessary) to pass through origin.
Read off projections in terms of unit cell dimensions a, b, and c.
Adjust to smallest integer values.
Enclose in square brackets, no commas.
[uvw] is the required miller index of that direction.
For several crystal systems, different directions have same arrangement of
atoms and hence these direction vectors are grouped under a Family of
directions.
Example- 1,0,1/2 => 2,0,1 => [201]
Family of Directions,e.g. ,<100> consist a family in case of cubic crystal
system constituting of directions-[100], [001], [010] and the negative
counterparts.

Crystallographic Directions

Crystallographic Planes
If the plane passes through origin, either:
Construct another plane, or
Create a new origin
Then, for each axis, decide whether plane intersects or parallels the
axis.

Algorithmfor Miller indices

1. Read off intercepts of plane with axes in terms of a, b, c

2. Take reciprocals of intercepts

3.Reduce to smallest integer values
4.Enclose in parentheses, no commas.

For example a plane having intercepts a/2, b, c/2 will have

miller indices (212).
Parallel planes have same miller indices.

Crystallographic Planes
For some crystal systems, different planes have
same arrangement of atoms, these planes are
grouped under a Family of planes and are
represented by {hkl}.
eg- {100}= (010), (001), (100) and negative
counterparts
Miller indices in Silicon

Miller Bravais Indices

For Hexagonal Crystal System, a set of four indices is used

for representation of planes ,points or directions, they are
called as Miller Bravais Indices.
The coordinate axes consist of three axes in a plane at an
angle 120 degrees each while another axis orthogonal to the
plane.

Miller Bravais Indices

Conversion of a set of Miller indices [uvw] into
[uvlw] is as per the following
1.) u=1/3(2u-v)
2.) v=1/3(2v-u)
3.) l=-(u+v)
4.) w=w
NOTE- u+v+l=0 for all the set of [uvlw] indices
as can be seen in above case.

Linear and Planar Density

Linear Density= Number of atoms centered on a directed vector
Length of directed vector
Planar Density= Number of atoms centered on a plane
Area of plane
The planes and directions in a family have same linear and planar
density respectively.

Dislocations and
Imperfections in Solids

Types of Crystalline Defects :

A. Vacancies/Schottky defects

Point
Defect
s

B. Interstitial Vacancies/Frenkel defecfs

C. Compositional defects
Substitutional
impurity
Interstitial impurity

Crystalline
Defects

Line
Defect
s
Surfac
e
Defect
Volum
s
e
Defect

D. Electronic impurity
1. Edge Dislocation
2. Screw Dislocation
a. Grain boundaries
b. Twin boundaries
c. Tilt boundaries
d. Stacking fault
Non Crystalline regions of
dimensions at least 10 to
30A

Point Defects:
Vacancies are empty spaces
where an atom should be, but
is missing.
They are common, especially
at high temperatures.
A self interstitial atom is an
extra atom that has crowded
its way into an interstitial void
in the crystal structure.
Self interstitial atoms occur
only in low concentrations in
metals.

Compostional Defects:
A substitutional impurity
atom is an atom of a different
type than the bulk atoms,
which has replaced one of the
bulk atoms in the lattice.
Interstitial impurity atoms
are much smaller than the
atoms in the bulk matrix.
Interstitial impurity atoms fit
into the open space between
the bulk atoms of the lattice
structure.

Frenkel and Schottky Defects:

Frenkel defect :
An interstitial-vacancy pair not
necessarily adjacent to one
another.
Schottky defect :
An anion (e.g. As) vacancy and
cation (e.g. Ga) vacancy pair
separated from one another.

Line Defects :
Dislocations: They are discrepancies in mechanical strength and are
explained by linear crystalline defect.
Dislocations are of two types:
1. Edge Dislocations
2. Screw Dislocations
Plastic Deformation in solids occur due to propagation of large number of
dislocations (both edge and screw).
The process of plastic deformation by dislocations is called slip.

Types of Dislocations:
Edge Dislocations: The inter-atomic bonds
are significantly distorted only in the
immediate vicinity of the dislocation line.
In the process of slipping one plane at a time
the dislocation propagates across the crystal.
The movement of the dislocation across the
plane eventually causes the top half of the
crystal to move with respect to the bottom half.

Types of Dislocations:
Screw Dislocations: The motion of a screw
dislocation is also a result of shear stress, but the
defect line movement is perpendicular to direction
of the stress and the atom displacement, rather
than
parallel.
Only a portion of
the bonds are broke at any
given time. The screw
dislocation will move
upward in the image,
which is perpendicular to
direction of the stress.

Slip Systems :
Slip Plane is the plane where in
dislocations are favourable. The
direction in which the dislocation
occurs is called the Slip
Direction.
Slip planes in crystal lattice is the
plane which has maximum
number of atoms present in it
and slip direction is the direction
in which the maximum atoms are
present.
Slip direction is also the direction
of the Burgers vector.

In the given FCC lattice, the (111)

plane forms the slip plane and
three <110> directions form slip
direction

Properties of Dislocations:
When metals deform, part of the energy (around
5%) in the process is used as lattice strain and
majority of remaining energy is given out as heat.
Two edge dislocations of the same sign and lying
on the same slip plane exert a repulsive force on
each other while Edge dislocations of opposite
sign and lying on the same slip plane exert an
attractive force on each other.
Source of new dislocations is
existing dislocations, grain
boundaries and internal defects
and surface irregularities.

Slip in a perfect lattice:

Shear stress is zero if 'x' is zero or b/2 where 'x' is
displacement in slip direction and b is interatomic
distance.
Assuming the shear stress to be sinusoidal, we get

2x
m sin

Applying Hooke's law for shear stresses,

Then,
x
G
a

x
2x
m
a
b

(for small angles)

b
G
m G

2a 2

(Since b

a)

Plastic deformation of polycrystalline

materials:
Before deformation of a
polycrystalline material, the grain
present are equalised & present in
approximately the same direction.
After deformation, the grains don't
open up & instead cohere and
elongate together.
They are harder to deform as
compared to single crystal
because, more stress is required
to initiate the slip.

Slip lines on polycrystalline Copper

Alteration of the grain structure of a

polycrystalline metal as a result of
plastic deformation

Strengthening of materials:
Macroscopic deformation corresponds to large number of
dislocations and the ability of a metal to plastically deform depends
on the ability of dislocations to move.
Hence by restricting dislocations in materials would result in
higher stress for plastic deformation and thus increase the strength
of material.
The methods of strengthening include:
1. Grain Size reduction
2. Solid Solution strengthening
3. Strain Hardening

Grain Size Reduction

Under an applied
stress,dislocations move through
a crystalline lattice until
encountering grain boundary,
where a repulsive stress field to
oppose continued dislocation
motion.
Decreasing grain size decreases
the amount of possible pile up at
the boundary, increasing the
amount of applied stress
necessary to move a dislocation
across a grain boundary. The
higher the applied stress to move
the dislocation, the higher the
yield strength.

Strain Hardening:
Process in which a ductile
metal becomes harder on
plastic deformation. Since it
occurs in cold temperature,
its also called 'cold working'.
It occurs due to dislocationdislocation field interaction.
Dislocation density increases
with deformation since more
dislocations are formed. this
distance between two
dislocations increase, causing
increased repulsion and
hence hindering the
propagation of dislocation.

Solid Solution Strengthening:

The process in which a pure
metal becomes harder and
stronger by introducing
impurities.
The interstitial impurities, if
smaller than the host atom,
experiences a tensile strain on
itself. To cancel this, it
positions itself to compensate
some of the strain by
dislocation and thus impedes
dislocation movement. The
opposite happens for larger
impurities.
The additional stress thus
increases resistance to slip,