6 - Defects in Metals

Abstract

Real crystals contain a variety of imperfections — point defects, line defects (such as dislocations), planer faults, grain boundaries, and volume defects (such as three-dimensional clusters of point defects). Many of the properties of metallic materials are affected by those imperfections. After brief accounts of the common defects observed in metallic crystals and reviews of the experimental techniques for studying them, principles of the thermodynamics and kinetics of intrinsic point defects in pure metals are discussed in detail. The thermodynamic principle of defect formation in ordered alloys and a method for calculating equilibrium concentrations of point defects are also presented.