In: Physics
Do materials with nanometer grain sizes have higher or lower yield strengths than bulk materials and why?
"Bulk nanostructured materials" are defined as bulk solids with nanoscale or partly nanoscale microstructures. It is rarely made up of a single grain with all the atoms oriented in a crystalline lattice from one macro surface to another. Most bulk materials have grain structures with random grains individually oriented in space and contacting each other across grain boundaries which exist as energetic defects within the bulk material.
Decreasing the grain size of metals which improves the yield strength and the ultimate tensile strength of bulk metals. However, size matters & the effect of grain size on the mechanical properties of bulk metals may also be affected by the grain size. The properties of nano “bulk” materials (aggregates of nano size grains or particles) may be better in some respects but they may also loose the properties that are expected with decrease in grain size and additional anomalous phenomena may appear.