Elastic/Plastic Deformation

When a sufficient load is applied to a metal or other structural material, it will cause the material to change shape. This change in shape is called deformation. A temporary shape change that is self-reversing after the force is removed, so that the object returns to its original shape, is called elastic deformation. In other words, elastic deformation is a change in shape of a material at low stress that is recoverable after the stress is removed. This type of deformation involves stretching of the bonds, but the atoms do not slip past each other.

When the stress is sufficient to permanently deform the metal, it is called plastic deformation. As discussed in the section on crystal defects, plastic deformation involves the breaking of a limited number of atomic bonds by the movement of dislocations. Recall that the force needed to break the bonds of all the atoms in a crystal plane all at once is very great. However, the movement of dislocations allows atoms in crystal planes to slip past one another at a much lower stress levels. Since the energy required to move is lowest along the densest planes of atoms, dislocations have a preferred direction of travel within a grain of the material. This results in slip that occurs along parallel planes within the grain. These parallel slip planes group together to form slip bands, which can be seen with an optical microscope. A slip band appears as a single line under the microscope, but it is in fact made up of closely spaced parallel slip planes as shown in the image.