Slip (materials science)

In materials science, slip is the large displacement of one part of a crystal relative to another part along crystallographic planes and directions. Slip occurs by the passage of dislocations on close/packed planes, which are planes containing the greatest number of atoms per area and in close-packed directions (most atoms per length). Close-packed planes are known as slip or glide planes. A slip system describes the set of symmetrically identical slip planes and associated family of slip directions for which dislocation motion can easily occur and lead to plastic deformation. The magnitude and direction of slip are represented by the Burgers vector, b. An external force makes parts of the crystal lattice glide along each other, changing the material's geometry. A critical resolved shear stress is required to initiate a slip. Slip in face centered cubic (fcc) crystals occurs along the close packed plane. Specifically, the slip plane is of type {111}, and the direction is of type . In the diagram on the right, the specific plane and direction are (111) and [10], respectively. Given the permutations of the slip plane types and direction types, fcc crystals have 12 slip systems. In the fcc lattice, the norm of the Burgers vector, b, can be calculated using the following equation: Where a is the lattice constant of the unit cell. Slip in body-centered cubic (bcc) crystals occurs along the plane of shortest Burgers vector as well; however, unlike fcc, there are no truly close-packed planes in the bcc crystal structure. Thus, a slip system in bcc requires heat to activate. Some bcc materials (e.g. α-Fe) can contain up to 48 slip systems. There are six slip planes of type {110}, each with two directions (12 systems). There are 24 {123} and 12 {112} planes each with one direction (36 systems, for a total of 48). Although the number of possible slip systems is much higher in bcc crystals than fcc crystals, the ductility is not necessarily higher due to increased lattice friction stresses.