Interaction of Straight Dislocations with

Impurity Atom

Elastic Interaction between Edge Dislocations and

Solute Atoms:

We examined the interaction between individual dislocations

or groups of dislocations and its consequences in the plastic
deformation characteristics of pure metal single crystals
Dislocations interact not only between themselves but also
with point defects such as vacancies. Self-interstitials.
Substitution and interstitial impurity atoms the point defects
act as elastic centers of distortion. Either expansion or
contraction. and possess a self-energy of formation and an
interaction energy with other defects which may raise or
lower the elastic strain energy of the crystal Dislocations
interact with point defects directly through their stress fields
as the point defects penetrate into their stress fields The total
energy of such as system will then be the self-energy of each
source of stress plus the interaction energy between them.

A foreign atom placed in a crystal will. in general. be of the

wrong size and the crystal structure will then relax around the
impurity site. Work is done in the process which contributes
to the potential energy of the impurity. If there is any volume
dilatation associated with the impurity site. then its energy of
formation will be different if it is near an edge dislocation

1
than that of a similar atom in an undistorted portion of the
lattice This difference in energy is the interaction energy U]. Ul
is invariably negative in sign for impurities that are attracted
towards the dislocation. This happens because the edge
dislocation has both tensile and compressive hydrostatic
components of stress field which lower the potential energy
of the impurity depending on the sign of the volume
dilatation that the impurity produces in the surrounding
crystal. The self-energy of the edge dislocation is also lowered
in the process. The impurity will then move to a lowest energy
site in the immediate proximity to the edge dislocation This
may happen as the dislocation glides through the crystal
containing these defects or by annealing at a high enough
temperature enabling the defects to diffuse to such favorable
locations When such a large number of these impurity atoms
redistribute themselves around the edge dislocation. there is
an overall reduction in the free energy of the crystal and a
higher stress is needed to dislodge the dislocation from such
an atmosphere of foreign atoms. This kind of interaction not
only is of the elastic type. but can also be chemical interaction
(formation of second-phase particles and electrical interaction
(Columbic type)The screw dislocations. however. do not
interact can interact if the distortions are asymmetric in
anisotropic materials. screw dislocations have zero interaction
-with spherical foreign atoms

2
Interaction between Screw Dislocations and
Solute Atoms Tetragonal Distortions:
In the previous analysis. only the hydrostatic stress
component was considered which yielded a direct first-order
interaction with a solute which caused a spherically
symmetric distortion in a matrix. Interaction could then occur
with any dislocation which has some edge character. A screw
dislocation which does not possess a hydrostatic component
of stress does not exhibit this interaction to the first order-
But the former interaction is only a special case of a more
general size effect interaction Solute atoms in crystals occupy
interstitial sites in the matrix which are far from spherical and
thereby produce asymmetric distortions. Such centers of
distortion can interact with both hydrostatic and shear stress
fields and hence can interact with both edge and screw
dislocations. A case of special interest IS C in bcc -fcc
causing tetragonal distortion around it. which can then
interact with the shear stress field of a screw dislocation and
thus a second-order interaction

Yield point:
Carbon and nitrogen, even in concentrations as low as 0.005
wt%, in iron lead to a sharp transition between elastic and
plastic deformation in a tensile test performed on ferritic iron
(Fig. 2.4a). Decarburization of the iron results in the
elimination of this sharp transition or yield point, which
implies that the solute atoms are in some way responsible for
this striking behavior. Frequently the load drops dramatically
at the upper yield point (A) to another value referred to as the
lower yield point (B). Under some experimental conditions,
3
yield drops of about 30% of the upper yield stress can be
obtained. Following the lower yield point, there is frequently
a horizontal section of the stress-strain curve BC) during which
the plastic deformation propagates at a front which can move
uniformly along the specimen. This front is referred to as a
Luders band( Fig. 2.4b), and the horizontal portion, BC, of the
stress-strain curve as the Luders extension. The development
of Luders bands can be much less uniform and, e.g., in
pressings where the stress is far from uniaxial, complex arrays
of bands can be observed. These are often referred to as
stretcher strains, but. they are still basically Luders bands.
When the whole specimen has yielded, general work
hardening commences and the stress-strain curve begins to
rise in the normal way. If, however, this deformation allowed
to rest either at room temperature or for a shorter time at
100-150C

4
Fig. 2.4 (a) Schematic diagram of yield phenomena as shown in a tensile test. (b) Luders bands in deformed steel
specimens (Hall.Yield Point Phenomena in Metals and Alloys (c) Luders bands in a notched steel specimen

Solute Atmospheres, Yield Point Phenomenon

and Serrated Deformation:
The presence of segregated impurities along dislocation lines
blocks the free movement of dislocations. thus enhancing the
critical stress required to activate dislocation sources, Extra
stress is required to overcome the dislocation impurity
attractive interaction and more the dislocation away from
regions of impurity segregation One of the most pronounced
effects of impurities is the increase in the yield strength of a
material. For example. in iron a sharp yield stress peak is
observed in the presence of small quantities of carbon and
nitrogen at annealed specimen in the early part of deformation
of many bee metals and alloys is shown in Figure 436,
Notwithstanding the hardness of the tensile testing machine.
the - curve is characterized by a sharp upper yield point uy
below which the deformation is purely elastic

5
 u
Figure 4.36 Stress-strain curve of -Fc containing some carbon in solid solution y and yl are the
Upper and lower yield points. Respectively

The micromechanisms of dislocation motion in polycrystals

are known to be strongly influenced by the presence of a
second phase particle distribution within the grains. There are
two extreme classes of dislocation-precipitate interaction:

1-When the precipitates are large, strong, widely spaced and

have an incoherent interface with the surrounding matrix,
dislocations bow between particles, leaving behind a
-dislocation loop around the particle.

.
2-When the precipitates are small, weak, closely spaced and
coherent with the matrix; dislocations may penetrate the
precipitates and shear them

.
*Process (1) encourages uniformly distributed slip because it
is harder to force a second dislocation past a strong obstacle
that already is surrounded by a dislocation loop

*Process (2) can metal to slip localization because when the

precipitates on a particular slip plane have been sheared once,
subsequent shear on that plane is often easier resulting in

a local strain instability

6
Different Types of Interactions between
Dislocations and Impurity Atoms:
Addition of solute atoms generally raises the yield strength
and the level of the stress -strain curve of many metals. alloys
and ceramic materials. This is due to the interactions that
arise between a dislocation and an impunity during
dislocation glide. Principal types of interactions between
dislocations and impurity (solute) atoms can be considered
under the following classification:

1- Elastic interaction-size effect

2- Electrostatic interaction-valency effect

3- Modulus interaction-modulus effect or Fleischer hardening

4- Chemical interaction-Suzuki effect

5- Short-range order interaction Fisher

6- Long-range order interaction

7- Snoek ordering

Elastic Interaction: Size Effect:

Strong elastic interaction arises between a dislocation and an
impurity when a misfitting solute is inserted into a solvent
matrix. The strengthening that results is directly proportional to
the degree of misfit of the solute. Dislocations interact with
these misfit strains through their long-range stress fields and
the strength of the interaction between symmetrical distortion
and edge dislocations is given by Eq. (4.108) and that between
asymmetrical distortions and screw dislocations by liq.

7
(4.130). Both these interactions are equally strong and the
latter can

interact with both edge and screw dislocations. The energy of

interaction between dislocations and interstitial impurities is
generally high in bcc lattices and low in fee lattices. For
example in a-Fe. for carbon and nitrogen impurities. Ul 0.5
eV. and for an interstitial impurity such as hydrogen in nickel.

Ul - 0.08 eV. The interaction between substitutional solutes

and dislocations is much weaker compared to that between
interstitial solutes and dislocations- This is because interstitial
solutes always produce appreciable dilatations and in non-
close-packed lattices they also produce asymmetric
distortions which usually deform the lattice in shear. causing
strong elastic interactions with both edge and screw
dislocations. The range of interaction is about Ul =0.5b/ R to
0.05b/R eV for interstitial impurities to the substitutional
impurities. respectively A similar interaction that exists
between dislocations and vacancies which do not cause any
appreciable dilatations is of the order UI~ 0.021b / ReV for in
cubic metals. Extension of dislocations into partial dislocations
in close-packed lattices does not appreciably affect this
interaction as long as the total edge character of the partial
dislocations is not significantly reduced

Electrostatic Interaction:
Unlike the elastic interaction. the electrostatic Coulombic
interaction is different in character and magnitude in different
types of crystals (Nabarro. 1967). In ionic crystals. a straight
edge dislocation line contains excess charges of alternating
positive and negatiye signs. Then an electrical interaction
8
arises because such a dislocation can attract clectrostatically
charged impurities of both signs (vacancies or interstitials
carrying charge if). However. this attraction can occur only
over very short distances. because the alternating charges
along the dislocation line annul at large distances In metals.
the tensile and the compressive hydrostatic stress field
associated with an edge dislocation produce a redistribution
of the free conduction electrons around the dislocation
creating an electric dipole which can interact with differently
charged impurities at short distances. Since the upper half of
the glide plane is compressed (material more dense) and the
lower half is under tension (expanded lattice). as well as the
Fermi energy has to remain the same everywhere. electrons
leave the denser region and enter the expanded region.
Thereby lowering their kinetic energy and acquiring a positive
electrostatic potential energy a. The charge redistribution
along the edge dislocation line will then resemble a line
dipole. The dipole can interact with a solute atom of a
different valiancy. Because of the screening by the conduction
electrons. this interaction gets reduced to negligible
proportions compared to the elastic size effect and the other
inhomogeneity effects such as modulus interaction. In ionic
crystals. however. where there are no screening effects. this
interaction is significant particularly b at charged jogs and can
surpass the elastic interaction.

Modulus Interaction or Fleischer Hardening:

Edge dislocation:
In general. solutes that occupy sites in a host lattice belong to
crystal structures that hate elastic constants distinctly different

9
from that of the matrix- For example. a substitution impurity
which is softer than the solvent will have a loner modulus than
that of the matrix Since the self-energy of a dislocation is
proportional to the modulus. a solute softer than the matrix
atom will then attract a moving dislocation. This is not always
an attractive interaction. but both edge and screw dislocations
interact with the defect. if the solute atom is hard compared to
the solvent atom. there m'll be repulsion between the
dislocation and the solute atom Consider the geometry in
Figure 4.49. where an edge dislocation is shown to interact
with a misfit solute atom with the elastic constant different
from that of the matrix

10
Short-range order interaction Fisher:

arises from the tendency for solute atoms to arrange

themselves so that they have more than the equilibrium
number of disimilar neighbors. The opposite of short-range
order is clustering, where like solute atoms tend to group
together in regions of the lattice. Strengthening occurs
because the movement of a dislocation through a region of
short-range order or clustering reduces the degree of local
order. This process of disordering will cause an increase in the
energy of the alloy and, to sustain the energetically
unfavorable dislocation motion, extra work (represented by
the interaction energy) must be provided

long rang order interaction:

arises in alloys which form superlattices. In a superlattice
there is a long-range periodic arrangement of dissimilar
atoms. The movement of a dislocation through a superlattice
creates regions of disorder called anti-phase boundaries APB)
because the atoms across the slip plane have structure.arises
in alloys which form super lattices. In a super lattice

11
SOLUTE SEGREGATION AT GRAIN BOUNDARIES:

Solute segregation at grain boundaries occurs when there are

lower energy sites at the grain boundary for solute atoms than
in the bulk. Consider N lattice sites with P solute atoms
distributed among them and n grain boundary atom sites with
p solute atoms at the grain boundary. Let E be the energy
increase caused by a solute atom in the bulk and e the energy
increase caused by a solute atom at the grain boundary. Then,
the Free energy increase due to solute atoms. G, is i: S
expressed as

Use of equilibrium conditions (dG/dP= O and dG/dp = O.) and

Stirling's approximation (LnN != Nln N-Nfor N >> 1.) for Eq.
(7.1) gives an equation of equilibrium distribution of solute
atoms as

Let A be the solvent atom. B the solute atom. XbA. XbB. X A and
XB their mole fraction at the grain boundary and in the bulk.
respectively. Equation (7.2) is then expressed as:

where E(=e- E ) is the free energy change due to the solute

segregation at the grain boundary

12
A number of models and theories of grain boundary
segregation have been proposed. The simplest of these.
McLeans model is basically an application of the Langmuir-
type surface adsorption to grain boundary adsorption and
assumes mono-layer segregation of single adsorbate without
interference between solvent and solute atoms (no site-to-site
interaction). The assumption of no interference means that
for any site. the probability of solute segregation assumption
of the regular solution model McLean suggested the major
driving force to be the elastic strain energy around solute
atoms in the lattice that results from lattice distortion The
lattice distortion energy, W(E1). generated by a solute atom in
the bulk can be calculated by using elastic continuum theory
as:

Here. K is the bulk modulus of the solute. the shear modulus

of the solvent and r0 and rl the radii of solvent and solute
atoms, respectively. If the solute atoms are hard spheres.

where Y is the Youngs modulus and u the Poissons ratio

McLeans suggestion that the elastic strain energy introduced
by solute atoms is the major driving force of segregation is too
simple to be justified except when the size difference between
solvent and solute atoms is consider able (for example. Bi in
Cu). Based on the nearest neighbour bond model Wynblatt
and his co-workers suggested that the driving force for surface
segregation in substitutional solutions should include the

13
surface energy difference and mixing enthalpy. According to
these authors, the heat of segre gation of a solute atom h is
expressed as:

where A is the atom area of the solvent, hmthe mixing

enthalpy per atom Z the number of nearest neighbour atoms,
ZL the number of lateral bonds of an atom. and Z the number
of vertical bonds. The first two terms on the right hand side of
Eq. (7.6) are a part of the surface segregation energy
calculated using the bond model. For grain boundary
segregation. a similar idea may be adopted. Equation (7.6)
assumes basically no site-to-site interaction and no
interdependence of the three contributions to the segregation
enthalpy

Although these assumptions would not be satisfied in real

systems, they allow comparison of the relative contributions If
the solute segregation at the interface follows the regular
solution model Eq. (7.3) is reduced to

In View of the interface energy difference, solute segregation

increases as the interface energy of the solute phase
.decreases. following Eqs(7.6) and (7.7)

14
Since the surface energy is. in general, 2-3 times the grain
boundary energy. the effect of the interfacial energy
difference should be higher for the surface than for the grain
boundary. Solute segregation increases as the value of mixing
enthalpy increases so that there is an increased tendency of
having a miscibility gap in the phase diagram. The three
contributions to segregation enthalpy in liq. (7.6) vary with
the system concerned. However, the variation of the elastic
strain energy contribution is usually the largest in metal(For
grain boundary segregation in ionic compounds)

It has been assumed so far that segregation occurs in a

monatomic layer following the McLean model. While this
assumption is acceptable for dilute solutions. segregation may
also occur across multi-atomic layers and, in particular. for
concentrated solutions. The use of a multi-layer adsorption
model (BET- Brunauer. Emmett and Teller model) has been
suggested as the most simple and useful approximation for
segregation in concentrated solutions

EFFECT OF SOLUTE SEGREGATION ON GRAIN

BOUNDARY MIGRATION:
When the grain boundary migrates. the solute atoms
segregated at the boundary are apt to remain attached to the
boundary that provides them with low energy sites. In other
words. the solutes have a tendency to diffuse along with the
moving boundary and this solute diffusion acts as a drag force
against the boundary movement. In the case of desegregation

15
of solute atoms a similar dragging effect results. Calm, and
Liicke and Sttiwe have theoretically analysed the solute drag
effect of a grain boundaryTo calculate this drag force the
solute distribution around the moving boundary must be
found

lising mass balance and continuity conditions Eqs (7.8) and

(7.9) Cahn calculated the solute distribution as a function of
distance from the grain boundary.C (X), in a steady state
(Vb),=contant

When the solute concentration is low. the chemical potential

of solute atoms . is expressed as =kT In C+ E(x)+ Eo Here. E0
is a constant and E(X)is the interaction potential of the solute
atom located at a distance x from the grain boundary. From
the boundary conditions dC /dx=0. dE/dx =0 and C(00) = C00at
x = 00, the solute concentration at x, C(x), satisfies

because the diffusion flux J of solute atoms is J : -

(DC,.~'kT)(du.o'dx). Here. vb is the grain boundary velocity. D
the solute diffusion coefficient, E the interaction potential at a
distance x from the grain boundary, C the solute
concentration at x. and (1,0 the average concentration of the
solute at an infinite distance from the grain boundary, i.e. in
bulk grains. The solution of Eq. (7.10) shows that the solute

16
distribution around the grain boundary is symmetric for a
stationary boundary and asymmetric for a moving boundary
The solution also shows that the concentration of the solute
segregated at the boundary decreases as the boundary
velocity increases. A temperature increase also reduces the
segregation concentration The drag force exerted by the
segregated solutes against the boundary movement, Pg, is
expressed as

where n and MV are the numbers of solute and solvent atoms

per unit volume respectively. Provided that C(X) satisfies Eq.
(7. I0). an approximate solution of Eq. (7.11) gives

where a is the drag force per unit concentration of solute and

per unit velocity of moving boundary when and Vb are small
enough to allow the segregated solute atoms to move along
with the boundary, and is the time required for solute atoms
to diffuse one unit distance. i.e. the inverse of the drift
velocity Figure 7.1 depicts the boundary drag force with
boundary velocity for high

17
 Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Department Faculty of Petroleum and Mining
Engineering Suez University

Rule of Solute Atom-Dislocation

Interaction On Plastic Deformation

By/AYA YEHIA IBRAHIM

Sec/2
Presented to /Dr.Samir

18
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Department Faculty of Petroleum and
Mining Engineering Suez University

Rule of Solute Atom-Dislocation

Interaction On Plastic Deformation

By/Aya MOHAMED ELNAGAR

Sec/1
Presented to /Dr.Samir

19
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Department Faculty of Petroleum and
Mining Engineering Suez University

Rule of Solute Atom-Dislocation

Interaction On Plastic Deformation

By/ Aya GAMAL ABD ELFATAH

Sec/1
Presented to /Dr.Samir
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