Effect of Ni on the dislocation strengthening in ferritic iron

The dislocation strengthening was estimated by applying the dislocation theory for a Fe-18%Ni alloy which has a lath martensitic structure. The yield stress of highly dislocated metals is dependent on both the friction stress and the dislocation strengthening. Regarding the coefficient of dislocation strengthening, it is governed by the shear modulus of metals. Ni addition plays a role in increasing the friction stress but decreases the shear modulus. This means that the coefficient of dislocation strengthening is smaller in the Fe-18%Ni alloy than pure iron. It was confirmed that the yield stress, which was experimentally obtained in Fe-18%Ni alloy, is reasonably explained by the mechanism of dislocation strengthening, taking the effects of Ni into consideration. On the other hand, in the case of lath martensite with a dislocation density of 2×10¹⁵ /m₂, it was also found that the effect of Ni addition does not appear on the yield stress because the increment of solid solution strengthening is cancelled out by the decrement of dislocation strengthening.