Seminar paper

Plastic deformation
Faculty of Engineering science
University of Kragujevac

December 10, 2015

Introduction
Metal forming is the backbone of modern manufacturing industry besides being a
major industry in itself. Throughout the world hundreds of million tons of metals go
through metal forming processes every year. As much as 15–20% of GDP of
industrialized nations comes from metal forming industry. Besides, it fulfils a social cause
by providing job opportunities to millions of workers. Metal forming industry, in general,
is a bulk producer of semi-finished and finished goods and this is one reason that it is
viable to undertake large scale research and development projects because even a small
saving per ton adds up to huge sums.

In metal forming processes, the product shapes are produced by plastic

deformation. Hence it is important to know the plastic flow properties of metals and
alloys for optimizing the processes. Also the resulting component properties depend
upon the intensity and the conditions of plastic deformation during forming. Many
forming processes produce raw materials for other processes which in turn produce
finished or semi-finished products. For example, steel plants produce sheet metal which
is used by automobile industry to manufacture components of automobiles and their
bodies. In fact sheet metal is used by a number of manufacturers for producing a large
variety of household and industrial products.

Similarly billets produced by steel plants are used by re-rolling mills for rolling into
products like angles, channels, bars etc. Bars may be further used for manufacturing
forgings, wires, bright bars and machined products. Similarly the manufacturers of rivets,
screws, bolts and nuts buy wire from wire manufacturers and process them further.
Therefore, the producers of semi-finished materials such as sheet metal, bar stock and
wires, etc. have to consider that they produce such properties in their products which are
required by down stream industry engaged in further processing of these products. For
example, deep drawability of sheet metal increases with increase in anisotropy ratio
therefore, rolling parameters such as finishing temperature, cold reduction etc, are
adjusted to produce higher anisotropy ratio in the sheet metal which is to be used for
deep drawing.

The properties of metals and alloys are highly influenced by their microstructure
which may be modified or altered by alloying elements, by heating or heat treatment or
by plastic deformation. For example, metals and alloys may be hardened by plastic
deformation. It would, therefore, be helpful if we look at metals at the micro level.

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BASIC STRUCTURE OF METALS AND ALLOYS

The microstructure of solid metallic bodies consists of grains. Grains consist of unit cells
in which atoms are arranged in a particular order. The cell structure repeats itself
throughout the volume of the grain .That is why the grains are also called crystallites. The
structure is called lattice in which atoms are placed at lattice points. In metals, generally
there is only one atom at a lattice point. There are many types of structures of unit cells
for different materials, however, metals generally possess one of the following three cell
structures.

(i) Body centered cubic structure (BCC).

(ii) Face centered cubic structure (FCC).
(iii) Hexagonal closed packed structure (HCP).

The three cell structures are illustrated in picture above .Some metals such as iron (Fe),
cobalt (Co), titanium (Ti), etc. change their cell structure at different temperatures.

Figure 1.Cell structures of metals [1]

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Plastic deformations – General

Plasticity in materials science is an irreversible change in the internal molecular

structure in response to applied forces1. For example, a solid piece of metal being bent or
pounded into a new shape displays plasticity as permanent changes within the material
itself. In engineering, the transition from elastic behavior to plastic behavior is
called yield.

The principal feature of a metal material is its high strength capability of resist
deformation caused by applied forces. The strength of metals is very high when they have
dense crystalline structure and regular packing of atoms in space. Analysis of crystalline
structure of solid materials, makes it possible to determine important qualitative and
quantitative relationships, which can then be applied all solid. The unique usage of metals
in mechanical engineering is mainly due theirs high strength rather than any other feature.

Metals belong to materials which can absorb high mechanical energy as force,
pressure or some other form, before it fracture and break. First deformation in material is
elastic which is reversible, plastic (irreversible) deformation comes before failure as force
or pressure is increased. A common metal is less strong than ceramic material, less elastic
than rubber and less corrosion resistant than any of material mention before, but non-
metallic have poor plasticity and low strength. Because of that non-metallic materials will
never replace metals as structural materials or not in close future. The mechanical
behavior of metals and alloys can be described by three definitions of their resistance to
elastic and plastic deformations and failure which is breaking of mechanical part.

- Elastic deformations are define by how high can be applied loads so that an object
could restore its initial shape and size after their removal.
- Plastic deformation which is permanent distortion of a material under the action
of applied stresses or loads.
- Failure is define by how high is force that will cause object to break.

More deep analysis of metals is associated whith the development of the theory of
dislocations and movements on atomic level. The presence of dislocations strongly

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force is any influence that causes a free body to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a
change in shape.

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influences many of the properties of materials. The theory was originally developed
by Vito Volterra in 1905.

Stress – strain curve

Stress-strain curves are an extremely important graphical measure of a material’s

mechanical properties. One of the simplest tests for determining mechanical properties
of a material is the tensile test. In this test, a load is applied along the longitudinal axis of
a circular test specimen. The applied load and the resulting elongation of the member are
measured. In many cases, the process is repeated with increased load until the desired
load levels are reached or the specimen breaks.
Engineering stress and engineering strain are computed using the original specimen
dimensions.

Figure 2. Stress-strain curves diagram [3]

So it is evident from the graph that the strain is proportional to strain or
elongation is proportional to the load giving a strain line relationship. This law of
proportionality is valid up to a point A or we can say that point A is ultimate point when
the linear nature of the graph ceases. This point is known as the limit of proportionality
or the proportionality limit(B) For a short period beyond the point A, the material may
still be elastic in the sense that the deformations are completely recovered when the load
is removed. The limiting point B is termed as Elastic Limit(C) and (D) - Beyond the
elastic limit plastic deformation occurs and strains are not totally recoverable. There will
be thus permanent deformation. These two points are termed as upper and lower yield

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points. The stress at the yield point is called the yield strength A study a stress – strain
diagrams shows that the yield point is so near the proportional limit that for most
purpose the two may be taken as one. However, it is much easier to locate the former.
For material which don’t posses a well define yield points. In order to find the yield point
or yield strength, an offset method is applied. In this method a line is drawn parallel to
the straight line portion of initial stress diagram by offsetting this by an amount equal to
0.2% of the strain and this happens especially for the low carbon steel.

Figure 3.steel and aluminum yield point [4]

𝜎PL - Proportional Limit - Stress above which stress is not longer proportional to strain.
𝜎EL - Elastic Limit - The maximum stress that can be applied without resulting in
permanent deformation when unloaded.
𝜎YP - Yield Point - Stress at which there are large increases in strain with little or no
increase in stress.
𝜎YS - Yield Strength - The maximum stress that can be applied without exceeding a
specified value of permanent strain (typically .2% = .002 in/in).
𝜎U - Ultimate Strength - The maximum stress the material can withstand
E - Modulus of Elasticity - Slope of the initial linear portion of the stress-strain diagram.
The modulus of elasticity may also be characterized as the “stiffness” or
ability of a material to resist deformation within the linear range.

The description of the mechanical behavior of a material becomes more

complicated if structural changes take place during deformations. Structural changes are

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of special importance for creep and relaxation since they determine the mechanical
behavior of the material in those processes of long term realization of plasticity. The
description of the mechanical behavior of a material becomes more complicated if
structural changes take place during deformations. Structural changes are of special
importance for creep and relaxation since they determine the mechanical behavior of the
material in those processes of long term realization of plasticity. Crystalline solids are the
main object in theoretical, experimental and technological studies in the field of the
strength and plasticity of materials. Single crystals are the most suitable object for
experimental work since they are reproducible and have a structure that varies only
insignificantly from one object to another. Local defects, such as dislocation which
appear in crystals in the course of plastic deformations, can change strongly the
crystalline structure, which makes them easily observable at various stages of plastic flow.

The materials used in engineering are mostly polycrystalline. The mechanical

behavior of polycrystalline materials is determine by of application of external stresses
which can cause deformation and fracture, the material at all that stages tends to retain
the crystalline structure which corresponds to the minimum energy. This explains the
important role of dislocations in the behavior of metals during deformation and fracture
and in structural changes occurring during plastic flow.

Metal fatigue
Another deformation mechanism is metal fatigue, which occurs primarily in
ductile metals. It was originally thought that a material deformed only within the elastic
range returned completely to its original state once the forces were removed. However,
faults are introduced at the molecular level with each deformation. After many
deformations, cracks will begin to appear, followed soon after by a fracture, with no
apparent plastic deformation in between. Depending on the material, shape, and how
close to the elastic limit it is deformed, failure may require thousands, millions, billions,
or trillions of deformations.

Metal fatigue has been a major cause of aircraft failure, especially before the
process was well understood (see, for example, the De Havilland Comet accidents).
There are two ways to determine when a part is in danger of metal fatigue; either predict
when failure will occur due to the material/force/shape/iteration combination, and
replace the vulnerable materials before this occurs, or perform inspections to detect the
microscopic cracks and perform replacement once they occur.

Selection of materials not likely to suffer from metal fatigue during the life of the
product is the best solution, but not always possible. Avoiding shapes with sharp corners
limits metal fatigue by reducing stress concentrations, but does not eliminate it.

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Plastic deformation by slip – dislocation slip
There are two types of dislocation movements:

1. Glide or conservative motion, when the dislocation moves in the plane which
contains both its line and its Burgers vector.

2. Dislocation motion by climb occurs when the dislocation moves out of the glide
plane, and thus normal to the Burgers vector.

Glide of many dislocations results in slip which is the most common manifestation of
plastic deformation in crystalline solids. Plastics deformation, or plastic flow, can be
envisaged as sliding, or successive displacements of one plane of atoms over another on
so-called slip planes. Discrete blocks of crystal between two slip planes remain
undistorted as the figure shows. Further deformation occurs either by more movement
on the existing slip planes or by the activation of new slip planes.

Slip results in the formation of steps on the surface of the crystal, as the figure for the
geometry of slip shows. These steps give rise to the appearance of straight slip bands on
the surface of the material if its surface is carefully polished before deformation. Each
band is made up of a large number of slip steps on closely spaced parallel slip planes.

The slip planes and the slip directions in a crystal have specific crystallographic forms.
The slip planes are normally the planes with highest density of atoms, i.e. those which are
not widely spaced, and the direction of slip is one of the shortest lattice translation
vectors. Often, this direction is one in which the atoms are most closely spaced. It is clear
that for slip a characteristic shear stress is required.

Figure 4.The slip planes and the slip directions [5]

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 Dislocations can move if the atoms from one of the surrounding planes break their
bonds and rebound with the atoms at the terminating edge. In effect, a half plane of
atoms is moved in response to shear stress by breaking and reforming a line of bonds,
one or a few at a time. The energy required to break a single bond is far less than that
required to break all the bonds on an entire plane of atoms at once. Even this simple
model of the force required to move a dislocation shows that plasticity is possible at
much lower stresses than in a perfect crystal. In many materials, particularly ductile
materials, dislocations are the "carrier" of plastic deformation, and the energy required to
move them is less than the energy required to fracture the material. Dislocations give rise
to the characteristic malleability of metals.

When metals are subjected to cold working (deformation at temperatures which are
relatively low as compared to the material's absolute melting temperature), the dislocation
density increases due to the formation of new dislocations and dislocation multiplication.
The consequent increasing overlap between the strain fields of adjacent dislocations
gradually increases the resistance to further dislocation motion. This causes a hardening
of the metal as deformation progresses. This effect is known as strain hardening. Tangles
of dislocations are found at the early stage of deformation and appear as non well-defined
boundaries. In addition, adding pinning points that inhibit the motion of dislocations,
such as alloying elements, can introduce stress fields that ultimately strengthen the
material by requiring a higher applied stress to overcome the pinning stress and continue
dislocation motion.

The effects of strain hardening by accumulation of dislocations and the grain

structure formed at high strain can be removed by appropriate heat treatment which
promotes the recovery and subsequent recrystallisation of the material.

Edge dislocations
An edge dislocation is a defect where an extra half-plane of atoms is introduced
mid way through the crystal, distorting nearby planes of atoms. When enough force is
applied from one side of the crystal structure, this extra plane passes through planes of
atoms breaking and joining bonds with them until it reaches the grain boundary. A simple
schematic diagram of such atomic planes can be used to illustrate lattice defects such as
dislocations. The dislocation has two properties, a line direction, which is the direction
running along the bottom of the extra half plane, and the Burgers vector which describes
the magnitude and direction of distortion to the lattice. In an edge dislocation, the
Burgers vector is perpendicular to the line direction.

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Screw dislocations
A Screw dislocations is much harder to visualize. Imagine cutting a crystal along a
plane and slipping one half across the other by a lattice vector, the halves will fit back
together without leaving a defect. If the cut only goes part way through the crystal, and
then slipped, the boundary of the cut is a screw dislocation. It comprises a structure in
which a helical path is traced around the linear defect by the atomic planes in the crystal
lattice. In pure screw dislocations, the Burgers vector is parallel to the line direction.

Despite the difficulty in visualization, the stresses caused by a screw dislocation

are less complex than those of an edge dislocation. These stresses need only one
equation, as symmetry allows only one radial coordinate to be used.

Figure 5.Screw dislocations [2]

Dislocation climb

Dislocations can slip in planes containing both the dislocation and the Burgers
Vector. For a screw dislocation, the dislocation and the Burgers vector are parallel, so the
dislocation may slip in any plane containing the dislocation. For an edge dislocation, the
dislocation and the Burgers vector are perpendicular, so there is only one plane in which
the dislocation can slip. There is an alternative mechanism of dislocation motion,
fundamentally different from slip, that allows an edge dislocation to move out of its slip
plane, known as dislocation climb. Dislocation climb allows an edge dislocation to move
perpendicular to its slip plane.
The driving force for dislocation climb is the movement of vacancies through a
crystal lattice. If a vacancy moves next to the boundary of the extra half plane of atoms

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that form an edge dislocation, the atom in the half plane closest to the vacancy can
"jump" and fill the vacancy. This atom shift "moves" the vacancy in line with the half

plane of atoms, causing a shift, or positive climb, of the dislocation. The process of a
vacancy being absorbed at the boundary of a half plane of atoms, rather than created, is
known as negative climb. Since dislocation climb results from individual atoms jumping
into vacancies, climb occurs in single atom diameter increments.

During positive climb, the crystal shrinks in the direction perpendicular to the
extra half plane of atoms because atoms are being removed from the half plane. Since
negative climb involves an addition of atoms to the half plane, the crystal grows in the
direction perpendicular to the half plane. Therefore, compressive stress in the direction
perpendicular to the half plane promotes positive climb, while tensile stress promotes
negative climb. This is one main difference between slip and climb, since slip is caused by
only shear stress.

One additional difference between dislocation slip and climb is the temperature
dependence. Climb occurs much more rapidly at high temperatures than low
temperatures due to an increase in vacancy motion. Slip, on the other hand, has only a
small dependence on temperature.

Deformation of single crystals and polycrystals

There are important differences between plastic deformation in single crystals and
polycrystalline materials. In a polycrystalline material, the individual crystals, or grains,
have different orientations, and the resolved shear stress for dislocation slip, varies from
grain to grain.

Single crystals
The initial elastic strain is caused by the simple stretching of bonds. Hooke's Law
applies to this region.

The geometry of the crystal changes as slip proceeds. The Schmid factor changes for
each slip system, and slip may begin on a second slip system when the resolved shear
stress on the secondary slip plane reaches the critical value to move dislocations. This
occurs as its Schmid factor is equal to that of the primary slip system. In this stage of
deformation, dislocations are gliding on two slip systems, and they can interact in ways
that inhibit further glide. Consequently, the crystal becomes more difficult to extend, that
is, work hardening occurs. The stress - strain ratio in stage 2 may be constant. Stage 3

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corresponds to extension at high stresses, where the applied force becomes sufficient to
overcome the obstacles, so the slope of the graph becomes progressively less steep. The
work hardening saturates. The last stage ends with the failure of the crystal.

Polycrystals

Polycrystals are composed of many grains with different relative crystallographic

orientation Almost all common metals, and many ceramics are polycrystalline. The
crystallites are often referred to as grains. Powder grains can themselves be composed of
smaller polycrystalline grains.
Polycrystalline is the structure of a solid material that, when cooled, forms
crystallite grains at different points within it. The areas where these crystallite grains meet
are known as grain boundaries.. If the material is untextured, the grains are randomly
oriented.

Figure 6. Crystallographic orientation [4]

When the bulk material is deformed, each individual grain undergoes slip. The
stress at which slip begins in each grain depends on its orientation with respect to the
tensile axis, following the Schmid’s law. The shape change in a plastically deforming grain
may be constrained by neighbouring grains that have not yet reached their yield point. In
addition, the grain boundaries, being regions of considerable atomic misfit, act as strong
barriers to dislocation motion. Also, the yielded, may cause dislocation sources operating
in the neighbouring grains. Thus the macroscopic yield stress at which all grains yield
depends on grain size. Finally, a grain in a polycrystal is not free to deform plastically like
a single crystal, because it must remain in contact with, and accommodate the shape

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changes of its neighbour grain. The inability to meet this condition leads to a small strain
at failure. The result of all these factors is that the stress-strain curve for a polycrystalline
material is different than the one for a single crystal and does not exhibit distinct stages
characteristic of the single crystals.
So that, depending on grain orientation respect to the direction of the load applied
to the material, some grains yield first, just when the resolved shear stress reach a critical
value, and then other grains will follow progressively as the applied load increases.

Figure 7.Polycrystals [3]

When a metal exhibits stages I, II and III in the single crystal stress-strain curve,
these stages will not be seen in a stress-strain curve from a polycrystalline sample of the
same material: each individual grain goes through these stages at the same resolved shear
stress and hence at different applied stress. The only well-defined feature in the stress-
strain curve is the yield point2, at which plastic deformation begins across the whole
sample.

2
The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in engineering and materials science as the stress
at which a material begins to deform plastically.

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SUPER-PLASTICITY
It is the property of material to suffer neck free elongation of several hundred per
cent. For instance, in zinc-22 Al eutectoid alloy an elongation of 2900 per cent has been
achieved in the temperature range of 293–573K. In Fe–26Cr 015–6.5 Ni alloy an
elongation of more than 1000 per cent may be achieved in the temperature range of 973–
1293K. In fact many metals and alloys show this property in certain temperature ranges
and grain sizes. Super-plasticity may also be achieved by thermal cycling across the phase
transformation temperature while the work piece is kept stretched.

The factors common to many super-plastic metals and alloys are given below.

(i) High value of strain rate exponent m, ( 0.3 to 0.5).

(ii) Small grain size of the order of a few micron.
(iii) Very little work hardening.

Some of the manufacturing processes used for thermoplastic materials have been
successfully employed for forming metals in super-plastic condition. For example,
processes such as blow forming and vacuum forming have also been used to form super-
plastic alloys.

A large number of alloys show super-plastic properties but at different temperatures

and grain sizes. The different super-plastic materials may be grouped into the following
three types.

(i) Low temperature alloys of Zn and Al.

(ii) Intermediate temperature alloys of Al.
(iii) High temperature alloys of nickel, some stainless steels and titanium alloys.

On experimentation with superalloy IN 718 which has application as material for

turbine blades for aircrafts, Kashyap and Chaturvedi [27] obtained maximum ductility of
485% at a strain rate of 1× 10–4 s–1 and temperature of 1198 K. They also noted a
decrease of ductility with increase in temperature. In fact, more research work is needed
to established behavior of yield strength and ductility of super alloys to strain rate, strain
hardening and temperature.

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REFERENCES

1. Hill R.; Mathematical Theory of Plasticity; Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1950.

2. Prager W. and Hodge, P.G. Jr.; Theory of Perfectly Plastic Solids; Chapman and Hall,
London, 1951.

3. Bridgeman P.W.; Studies in Large Plastic Flow and Fracture with Special Emphasis on
the Effects of Hydrostatic Pressure; McGraw-Hill, New York, 1952.

4. Johnson W. and Mellor P.B.; Plasticity for Mechanical Engineers; D. van Nostrand Co.
Ltd., London, 1962.

5. Ford H.; Advanced Mechanics of Materials; Wiley, New York, 1963.

6. Alexander J.M. and Brewer, R.C. Manufacturing Properties of Materials; van Nostrand
Rheinhold, 1963.

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