Institute of Metals Division - The Effect of Stress on the Allotropic Transformation in Cobalt

Single crystals of hcp cobalt, 3 mm in diameter and up to 35 cm long, were grown using an electron-beam, zone-melting technique. The martensitic-phase transformation was studied in single-crystalline and polycrystalline specimens by making length-change measurements as a function of temperature under various elastic compressive stresses. Upon thermal cycling, single-crystalline or polycrystalline specimens repeatedly transformed almost entirely on the same variant of close-packed plane provided the maximum temperature did not exceed 600°C. Cycling to 1000°C resulted in transformation on more than one {111} variant. This behavior is termed multivariance. The multivariant transformation occurred very rapidly at an M, temperature 2° to 6°C lower than the M, of a transformation which would result in a single-crystal product. Elastic compressive stresses (up to 253 g per sq mm) tended to lower the A, and raise the M, temperatures, decreasing the width of the temperature vs dilatation hysteresis loop. The transformation habit plane and transformation shear direction of an as-grown single crystal were not grossly affected by elastic compressi?ie stress. This was evidenced by similar dilatations on the temperature us dilatation loops joy specimens with and without compressive stress. A dislocation mechanism is proposed to explain the observed results. IT has been shown that, on heating, cobalt transforms martensitically from the hcp to the fcc phase.' The transformation habit plane is (0001)hcp || (lll)fcc and the transformation shear direction is (1010)hcp || (112)fcc. The transformation involves a shear of 1g°28', which may be achieved by a shearing of a/6(112) of every two planes with respect to the plane beneath, thus changing the ABABAB stacking of hcp to the ABCABC stacking of fcc. Associated with the phase change is a 0.3 x 10"3 contraction in the habit plane and a 4.2 X 10"3 expansion perpendicular to the habit plane resulting in a 3.6 x X volume increase on heating.' On cooling, an identical volume decrease takes place. The temperature at which the fcc phase begins to form on heating (A,) is reported as 430°C, and the temperature at which the hcp phase begins to form on cooling from an elevated temperature (A&) is reported as 390oC1,3 Consequently, temperature vs dilatation plots have the form of a hysteresis loop. If heating or cooling is reversed during a transformation, a smaller hysteresis loop results. Upon heating, the transformation is always complete; whereas, fcc is often retained at room temperature as a metastable phase entrapped in the polycrystal-line hexagonal matrix.1,4,5 Two obstacles in the theory of the allotropic-phase transformation of cobalt have been: 1) a detailed knowledge of the product nucleus, and 2) a plausible method of propagation of the transformation. Bilby,8 christian, 7 and seeger 8,9 have suggested a "pole mechanism" as a means of propagation of partiai dislocations from plane to plane. A pole dislocation and a Shockley partial come together at a node. The a/6(112) Shockley partial rotates about the pole dislocation effecting the transformation shear. The pole dislocation must have a 2a/3(111) screw component which causes extension of the transformed region by two atomic planes with each full rotation of the Shockley partial. Bollmannl0 suggested, on the other hand, that transformation propagation occurs due to the stress fields of intersecting (111)-type stacking faults. As faults intersect, a stress distribution is set up about their intersection which is in turn reduced by the emergence of another fault on the second nearest plane. This process continues with the final result of a complete phase transformation. In view of the similarities between deformation and transformation in cobalt, the effect of stress on the transformation would, hopefully, yield valuable information concerning nucleation and propagation. In the present work single-crystalline and polycrystalline specimen length changes were measured as a function of temperature at various compressive loads. PROCEDURE Several orientations of single crystals of hcp cobalt in lengths up to 25 cm were grown by electron-beam floating zone melting from 99.95 and 99.999 pct, 3-mm-diam cobalt rod as supplied by Johnson