Grain Growth in AlphaBrass

J. E. Burke

Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 18, 1028 (1947); doi: 10.1063/1.1697574
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1697574
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Published by the American Institute of Physics.

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Letters to the Editor
Grain Growth in Alpha-Brass
J. E. BURKE
Institute for the Study of Metals, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
June 30, 1947
A
N extensive series of data on isothermal grain growth
in alpha-brass has recently been published by
Walker.l Plotting from these data 10gD (grain diameter in
mm), vs. log time, one obtains a series of isothermal curves.
An example for 42.4 percent deformation prior to recrystal-
lization is shown in Fig. 1. One should like to know whether
time and temperature for this process are related by a
heat of activation Q. If so, times at temperature Tl should
be related to times at temperature T2 by the equation:
In(tt/t2) = (Q/R) (T
2
-1- T
1
-l).
This equation can be solved to give values of t1/t 2 to
convert times at a given temperature to times at any
I
omL
02. LO 40 .. eo 240
FIG, 1. Isothermal grain growth at various temperatures in alpha-brass.
reference temperature. By taking Q as 60,000 cal. per
mole it is found that the data taken at all temperatures
can be on a smooth curve at a single reference
temperature, with only a reasonable experimental scatter.
Figure 2 shows this for the curves of Fig. I, at a reference
temperature of 500C, It thus seems proper to assign a
heat of activation to the process. This curve is not a
straight line.
..
FIG. 2. Solid line: composite grain-growth curve at 500C reference
temperature; Dashed line: composite curve corrected by subtracting
0.03 mm.
1028
Beck, Kremer, and Demer
2
report that their data for
grain growth in high purity aluminum follows the relation-
ship:
D=ktn,
where k is a constant and the exponent n increases linearly
with temperature. Obviously this relationship cannot hold
for short times, for, at 1=0, D has'a finite value, Do.
The present data are expressed reasonably well by.the
rela tionship:
D-Do=klt",
where Do is the grain size at the time of recrystallization,
k is a temperature-dependent constant, and the exponent
n has the value 0.425 until late in the growth process. The
dotted line in Fig. 2 was obtained by subtracting thp
recrystallized grain size reported by Walker for this series
(0.03 mm) from the solid curve through the experimental
points. It can be seen that it is a straight line until thp
late stages of growth, but that the slope definitely falls
off then. Similar results are obtained from other series of
data in Walker's work,
This work was supported by the Office of Research and
Inventions, U. S. N. (Contract No. N60ri-20-IV),
1 Harold L. Walker, University of Illinois Eng. Exp. Sta. Bull.
No. 359 (Nov. 1945).
2 Paul A. Beck, Joseph C. Kremer, and L. Derner, Phys. Rev. 71.
555 (1947).
'Comments on "Grain Growth in Alpha-Brass"
PAUL A. BECK
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
September 12, 1947
I
N the above note J. E. Burke calculated a heat of
activation value from grain-growth data on brass
obtained by H. L. Walker.l Considering the scatter of the
data, his value of 60 kcal./g of atom is in reasonable
agreement with the heat of activation value of 73.5 kcal./g
atom previously calculated for brass by Beck, Kremer,
and Demer,2 by an essentially identical method, from other
published grain-growth data. Thus, Burke's result tends
to confirm Beck, Kremer, and Derner's conclusions with
regard to the heat of activation value from grain-growth
data on brass.
Burke states that the relationship,
(1 )
found by Beck, Kermer, and Derner for isothermal grain
growth in high purity aluminum cannot hold for short
times, for at t=O, D has a finite value, Dr, the grain size as
Burke uses t to denote the time
for grain growth. The zero point of his time scale is at the
moment when recrystallization is just complete. However,
in the nomenclature used by Beck, Kremer, and Derner t
denotes the total time of annealing, which includes the
time for recrystallization. * Clearly, Burke's objection is
based on a misunderstanding of the nomenclature.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
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Since most of the annealing periods used by Beck,
Kremer, and Demer are very long in comparison with the
time for recrystallization, the error committed by using
"grain-growth time" instead of "totartime," as a result of
the above misunderstanding, is negligible, except for the
shortest annealing periods at the lowest annealing temper-
atures. Consequently, the whole matter would be lacking
in significance were it not for another mistake in Burke's
note. He uses the time data from Walker's paper as if
these meant "time for grain growth" in the above sense.
;\ctually, Walker, like Beck, Kremer, and Demer, uses the
"total time" of annealing. As some of the times of recrystal-
lization in Walker's work are relatively long (such as
16 min. at 450C), the error resulting from this misinterpre-
tation is significant.
The dotted line in Burke's Fig. 2 gives 10g(D-Dr ) as a
function of logt, where t is supposed to be the time for
grain growth, but it is actually the total time of annealing
of Walker's specimens, as explained above. Although the
initial portion of this line was so selected across the
"reasonable scatter" of the transposed experimental points
that it is straight, Burke admits that deviation from the
straight line definitely occurs at longer annealing periods.
Nevertheless, he considers that the data are reasonably
well expressed by the relationship:
(2)
A comparison of relationships (1) and (2), by \,Ising
Beck, Kremer, and Derner's grain-growth data on high
purity aluminum at 400C, is given in Fig. 1. It is clear
that the plot of 10gD vs. logt closely approximates a
straight line. Plotting the same data as D -;- D r vs. t. (to is
used here to designate "grain-growth time" in order to
avoid confusion) results in a curve which asymptotically
approaches the above straight line at very large to values.
Similar curves are obtained for other annealing tempera-
tures. Obviously, relation (2) does not fit the grain-growth
data for high purity aluminum, but formula (1) does.
It can be easily shown that the initial portion of the
curve in the figure approaches a slope of n = 1. If t. ap-
proaches zero, D/D. approaches 1, that IS D/Dr= l+d,
where d is a very small number, and
D-Dr=dD
r
. (3)
In Eq. (1) the constant k can be eliminated if one puts
D=Dr for t=R, where R is the time for just complete
recrystallization. The following formula is then obtained:
D/D
r
= (t/R)n
or, substituting to = t - R,
(4)
From (4), with the above relations,
and from this, for a small value of to,
d=(n/R)t
a

(5)
By substituting (5) into (3) one obtains
D -Dr=n(Dr/R)t . (6)
VOLUME 18, NOVEMBER, 1947
~ ~ - .
07
os.
P.L.
L3 .---
.--
.-0-;;:
./" 02
----
..-----
/
,
/N=I
~ ..
Llli ./
'02.
,
~ ~ 5 /
L
)04' /
In../ 1/
,
) : ~ 2 I
I
'"
I 5 6 5 31 151
to AND Lg.M1N.. LOG SCAU
FIG. 1.
Formula (6) shows that for small values of to the relation-
shi p between D - D. and to is linear. This means that at
very short times in the logarithmic plot the curves for all
temperatures approach the slope of n = 1. At long annealing
times they approach the D = k t
n
straight lines, where the
slope, n, increases with the temperature.*
* A fuller discussion of these questions is included in a detailed
paper by Beck. Kremer. Derner. and Holzworth to be published in
Metals Technology. September. 1947.
1 Harold L. Walker. University of Illinois Eng. Exp. Sta. Bull.
No. 359 (1945).
2 Paul A. Beck. Joseph C. Kremer. and L. Derner. Phys. Rev. 71.
555 (1947).
Electron Micr-oscope and Electron-Diffraction
Study of Slip in Metal Crystals
R. D. HEIDENREICH AND W. SHOCKLEY
Bell Telephone Laboratories. Inc . Murray Hill. New Jersey
August 20. 1947
T
HE process of plastic deformation in metal crystals
has been the subject of many investigations, both
experimental and theoretical, over a long period of years.
The new experimental results to be described briefly in
this letter have been presented orally before two different
groups* but have not appeared in print. A fuller account of
the methods and results will appear in a British publication.
The current experiments concerning the structure of slip
bands were carried out using 99.99 percent aluminum cast
in the form of small single crystals (20X6X2 mm). The
as-cast crystals were mechanically polished through 4/0
French emery to produce a flat, 6 X 20 mm surface and then
electropolished to remove the heavily worked layer. The
samples were then annealed 3--4 hours above 600C,
1029
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