Hexagonal close-packed structure slip systems

Slip occurs along specific crystal planes (slip planes) and in specific directions (slip directions) within a crystal structure. Slip planes are usually the closest-packed planes, and slip directions are the closest-packed directions. Both face-centered-cubic (FCC) and hexagonal-close packed (HCP) structure are close packed structures, and slip always occurs in a close packed direction on a closepacked plane. The body-centered-cubic (BCC) structure is not, however, close packed. In a BCC system, slip may occur on several nearly close packed planes or directions. Slip planes and directions, as well as the number of independent slip systems (the product of the numbers of independent planes and directions), for these three structures are listed in Table 7.2. 

The structural representations shown in Fig. 3.2 are useful for visualizing the slip-planes that may exist in various metal crystal systems. For example, from the face-centered cubic (fee) lattice shown in Fig. 3.2a, it is easy to see how planes of atoms might slide rather easily over one another from the upper left to the lower right. This lattice also has several other such slip planes. While it is not readily apparent from the figure, a three-dimensional model of these crystal systems would show that the body-centered cubic (bcc) lattice offers the least number of slip planes of the three shown, and the hexagonal-close-packed (hep) system falls in between the fee and bcc systems. 

Since the number of slip systems is not usually a function of temperature, the ductility of face-centered cubic metals is relatively insensitive to a decrease in temperature. Metals of other crystal lattice types tend to become brittle at low temperatures. Crystal structure and ductility are related because the face-centered cubic lattice has more slip systems than the other crystal structures. In addition, the slip planes of body-centered cubic and hexagonal close-packed crystals tend to change at low temperature, which is not the case for face-centered cubic metals. Therefore, copper, nickel, all of the copper-nickel alloys, aluminum and its alloys, and the austenitic stainless steels that contain more than approximately 7% nickel, all face-centered cubic, remain ductile down to the low temperatures, if they are ductile at room temperature. Iron, carbon and low-alloy steels, molybdenum, and niobium, all body-centered cubic, become brittle at low temperatures. The hexagonal close-packed metals occupy an intermediate place between fee and bcc behavior. Zinc undergoes a transition to brittle behavior in tension, zirconium and pure titanium remain ductile. 

---