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Work Hardening and Annealing

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Principal of Strengthening

The ability of a metal to plastically deform

depends on the ability of dislocation to move.
Restricting or hindering dislocation motion
renders a material harder and stronger

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Metal Working Methods

Change in cross-sectional area
%CW = (A0 A)/A0 x 100

Rolling

Forging
A
Ao

Ao

Extrusion

Drawing
A

Ao

Ao
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Strain (Work) Hardening

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Tensile Test Work Hardening

n is the strain-hardening exponent

K is the strength coefficient

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Tensile Test Work Hardening

log-log curve of vs.

- Slope of the curve is n

Various hardening components

- Lower n means poor respond to
work hardening
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Values for n and K for metals at room temperature

Metal

Condition

K, psi

0,05% C steel

Annealed

0,26

77000

SAE 4340 steel

Annealed

0,15

93000

0,60% C steel

Quenched and tempered 1000oF

0,10

228000

0,60% C steel

Quenched and tempered 1300oF

0,19

178000

Copper

Annealed

0,54

46400

70/30 brass

Annealed

0,49

130000

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Strain (Work) Hardening

Cold work will lead to:
Increase of Yielding Strength
Increase of Tensile Strength
Reduction of Elongation
Material becomes stronger
but more brittle

Effect of cold work on mechanical

properties of Cu-1.5Ti alloy
S. NAGARJUNA, K. BALASUBRAMANIAN,
1997
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Strain (Work) Hardening

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Strain (Work) Hardening

Reason: Increasing dislocation density and the
interaction between dislocations, which
reduces dislocation mobility. As a result,
larger stresses must be applied in order that
additional deformation may taken place.
Dislocation Multiplication:
- Before deformation a metal contains about 106 cm of
dislocation line per cubic centimeter of metal. The
number of dislocations may increase to 1012 cm of
dislocation line per cubic centimeter of metal.
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Strain (Work) Hardening

Dislocation Multiplication

Frank-Read Source
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Strain (Work) Hardening

Dislocation Interactions make it difficult to move

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Strain (Work) Hardening

The intersection of two dislocations creates jogs which in

magnitude and direction are equal to the other dislocations
Burgers vector.
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Microstructure Change after Cold Work

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Annealing
Heating a cold-worked metal above a recrystallization temperature (0.30.5 TM)
eliminates most of the defects (dislocations, etc)
In 1 hr, substantial amount of recrystallization occurs
Heating process referred to as annealing
Annealing consists of heating to a high enough temperature followed by cooling at
a suitable rate
During annealing, metals undergo recovery and recrystallization
Highly-strained grains are replaced by new strain-free grains
Amount of recrystallization is dependent on both time and temperature
Annealing leads to
Reduction in yield strength and hardness and increase in ductility as the
dislocations are removed
Increase ductility, softness
Development of desired microstructure and properties
Cold-working and annealing are often cycled to assist in production

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Recovery
When the cold-worked metal is annealed:
Recovery occurs first (at 0.1TM)
Thermal energy allows some dislocation motion
Dislocation density goes down slightly due to
annihilation and rearrangement
Hardness and ductility are almost unchanged
Major changes come from recrystallization that occurs at
higher temperatures (at 0.30.5TM)

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Recrystallization

Recrystallization:
New grains nucleate and grow at the expense the highly-strained
grains until the whole of the metal consists of strain-free grains
Nucleation usually occurs in the most deformed portion of the grain
boundary or slip plane
Driving force is the strain energy of the deformed grains
Dislocation density returns to original value (before cold working)
Hardness and ductility return to original value

Recrystallization also used to control grain size

High temperatures and long crystallization times can lead to grain
growth of the strain-free grains (driven by reduction in grain
boundary area) tend to produce a large grain size
Grain growth due to surface tension - big grains eat little grains
High initial deformation tends to produce small recrystallized grains
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Cold Working and Annealing

Starting material with low

dislocation density

Cold-worked material
has greatly increased
dislocation density

Further annealing leads to

nucleation and growth of new grains

Annealing leads to
recovery

Fully recrystallized metal with new

(smaller) strain-free grains

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Recrystallization & Growth

0 sec

3 sec

4 sec

8 sec

Cold worked brass at recrystalization temp 580oC

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th

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Example: Design a process to produce 0.20-in diameter copper
wire.

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