Materials Science and Engineering

Spring 2025

Worksheet 5

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M. Hinojosa
 Materials Science and Engineering
Spring 2025

Name:Adrian Martinez Hernandez

date:Feb/17th 2025

Our fifth week:

In the past few weeks, we have studied the structure of pure, perfectly ordered crystalline
materials. Now, we will transition to a more realistic description of engineering materials.
Therefore, you are expected to understand, identify, and quantify the different kinds of
defects or imperfections in crystals. Our aim is to understand and quantitatively describe the
most important defects in the crystal structure of solids: vacancies, interstitial atoms,
substitutional atoms, dislocations, and grain boundaries. You will also begin to learn how
these defects modify the properties of real crystalline materials. Later, you will explore
strategies to control the type and number of defects to obtain the desired structure and
properties that will lead to the required performance in specific applications.
In general, imperfections or defects distort the structure at different scales, and
this can have dramatic effects in the behavior (properties) of materials.
Please read the fourth chapter on Askeland 6th ed. and/or Callister 7th ed. books, analyze the
ppt presentation. The following videos may be of help:
https://youtu.be/BV1cxwxnhPs , https://youtu.be/TxJOP3hA6To , https://youtu.be/-
t6btGjGKYU , https://youtu.be/Hz26kMScIJU

Remember that you are expected to attend our Tuesday session having solved (ideally
completely) the following exercises.
Please type your answers in blue. You do not need to add a cover page.
----------------------

1.- Considering what you have learned so far, write down and discuss from a quantitatively
point of view, some (three, for example) relationships between structure and properties.

a) The mechanical strength of metals depend a lot on grain size, where a smaller size is
related to a higher strength: in general, important properties in materials are affected by
these microstructures.

b) The anisotropic nature of crystals is caused by the different type of arrangements of the
atoms of a crystal because depending on this arrangement, the density of atoms are
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Spring 2025

different. So if a crystal is being pulled in a direction in which its planar density is the
greatest, its strength will also be the greatest.

c) The different properties of materials are greatly affected by the defects and the type and
amount of these defects that appear varies from type of arrangement to type of
arrangement. In turn these defects can affect things like the strength of a material, its
ductility its optical properties, and event its electric conductivity.

2.- Give the technical translation to English of the following terms in Spanish: fronteras de

grano, Grain Boundary ; aleación:Alloy, cloro: Chlorine (Cl), cloruro: Chloride ; dislocación de

borde: Edge dislocation , dislocación de tornillo: Screw dislocation, esfuerzo de corte: Shear

stress, macla: Twin, microscopio óptico: Optical microscope, microscopio electrónico:

Electron microscope, vacancia: Vacancy, intersticial: Intersticial, temperatura

ambiente:Room temperature.

3.- Fill the table (Pay attention to the appropriate units).

Hardne Yield UTS Ductility Electrical

ss Strength (resistan (% of conductivity
MPa ce to elongati
(Vickers %IACS (100%
(Megapasc pulling on
) represents the
als) stress
conductivity of
before
copper)
failure)
MPa

Pure 80–120 50–150 MPa 200–300 30–50% 17% IACS

iron HV MPa

Steel 190–210 450 MPa 585 MPa 12–20% 10% IACS

1045 HV

Pure Al 15–25 15–20 MPa 40–50 50–70% 61% IACS

HV MPa

Al7010 120–140 490–510 540–570 10–13% 30–40% IACS

HV MPa MPa

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 Materials Science and Engineering
Spring 2025

Pure 40–50 70 MPa 210 MPa 50% 100% IACS

copper HV

Bronze 60–200 100–500 200–800 10–50% 15–50% IACS

HV MPa MPa

4- Write down the Arrhenius equation for the number of vacancies in a crystalline material,
clearly define every variable and/or constant involved, including the appropriate units.

n v =n exp [ ]
−Qv
kT

n v =number of vacancies
n=number of atoms
Qv = Activation Energy for vacancy formations ∈Joules∨eV
−5 eV −23 K
k =Boltzman Constant∈8.617 × 10 ∨1.38 ×10
K J
T = Absolute temperature∈Kelvin

5.- Consider a Mexican peso coin, assume it is made of pure copper and that its volume is 1
cm3, calculate, using Excel, the number of vacancies at the temperatures indicated in the
table (see pages 115-116 in Ch. 4 of Askeland’s textbook) (If you prefer you can use Python,
R or any other software).

T (°C) T (Kelvins) nv
25 298 181958263.3
100 373 1.61995E+11
200 473 4.86617E+13
400 673 2.71411E+16
500 773 1.8789E+17
600
873
8.34982E+17
700 973 2.73086E+18
800 1073 7.16145E+18
900 1173 1.59335E+19
1000 1273 3.12649E+19
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Tm 1358 5.12852E+19
(1085)

Write down your comments: This data shows how the growth in number of vacancies grow
exponentially in this case in function of temperature.

6.- Plot the number of vacancies in the Mexican peso coin versus absolute temperature (You
can use Excel, Python, R or any other software). Pay attention to the scale of the y-axis
(paste your graphic below).

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 Materials Science and Engineering
Spring 2025

7.- (a) Calculate the radius, in Å, of the void at the center of the FCC iron unit cell. Elaborate
and include a proper sketch.

(b) Write a comment: I found the length of one side of the unit cell to then find the distance
between the atoms at the center of two opposite sides and dividing that by 2 to get the
radius of this void

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 Materials Science and Engineering
Spring 2025

8.- (a) Compare your result for the radius of the void at the center of the FCC-iron unit cell
with the radius of the carbon atom (remember to use blue color).
The void radius is: 0.5219 Angstroms, whereas the atomic radius of carbon is 0.77
angstroms_, this means that Internal stress is present in this interstitial alloy. There are
forces of compression in the interstation and surrounding it.

b) Knowing that steel is basically iron with a certain percentage of carbon (typically less than
1 % in weight), write a comment considering your results.
Considering that carbon atoms are bigger than the interstitial places they take up, this
internal stress may be the cause of the increased strength, hardness, and less ductility.

9.- Let suppose you find that a sample of iron at room temperature has one interstitial
carbon atom in every unit cell. (a) Calculate the atomic percentage of carbon in the alloy. (b)
Calculate the weight percentage of carbon in the alloy.
For every unit cell of iron at room temperature bcc there are 2 atoms of iron. If there is 1
1
interstitial carbon per unit cell, the atomic percentage of carbon in the alloy is %=33.33 %
3

If the atomic mass of Fe is 55.845 u and 12.011 u for carbon, and we take into account there
are 2 iron atoms per interstitial carbon then,

2 ( 55.845u ) +12.011u=123.701 u=100 %

12.011u
=0.097=9.7 %
123.701u
The percentage of weight of carbon in this alloy is of 9.7%
Write a comment:
In this case the concentration of carbon is much higher that what is typically made, even 10
times more.

10.- Sketch the preferred plane and directions (showing the distribution of atoms), indicating
their Miller indices, for the motion of dislocations in FCC metals such as ________ , _________ ,
and __________.

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Spring 2025

Write a comment:
11.- Calculate the Burger´s vector (magnitude, direction) for your first example of FCC
metals.

Write a comment:

12.- Find the Burgers vector for the following Screw (screw?, edge?) dislocation by tracing a
Burgers circuit (see example 4-6 in page127 of Askeland’s book) (You can also watch this
video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVXSblJRBbU from10:10 to 14.47, you can ignore
the rest of the video)

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Spring 2025

Write a comment:
13.- Estimate the total number of grains on the face of a Mexican peso coin. Assume the

grains correspond to ASTM grain size number 7. ASTM stands for _______________

__________________ ____________________ ______________________.

Your calculations here:

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 Materials Science and Engineering
Spring 2025

Write a comment:

14.- Complete the following table (use your own words):

Crystalline Effect on properties

defects
Vacancies

Interstitials

Substitutionals

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Spring 2025

Dislocations

Grain
boundaries

Pores, cracks

Precipitates

15.- A copper- zinc alloy has the following properties, (a) plot the data (using Excel or
another software).

Your plot here:

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 Materials Science and Engineering
Spring 2025

(b) discuss the observed behavior using the Materials Science Tetrahedron (write at least
400 characters).

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