Durcissement structuralLe durcissement structural est comme son nom l'indique un procédé permettant de durcir un alliage de métaux. Il nécessite un alliage métastable, dont la forme stable à température ambiante est un composé intermétallique constitué de deux phases différentes. Un recuit à l'intérieur du nez du diagramme TTT entraîne la germination de précipités de différentes nouvelles phases plus ou moins stables. Ces précipités, qu'ils soient cohérents ou incohérents avec la phase principale constituent des obstacles sur le chemin des dislocations ce qui augmente la dureté ainsi que les propriétés en traction du matériau.
Cross slipIn materials science, cross slip is the process by which a screw dislocation moves from one slip plane to another due to local stresses. It allows non-planar movement of screw dislocations. Non-planar movement of edge dislocations is achieved through climb. Since the Burgers vector of a perfect screw dislocation is parallel to the dislocation line, it has an infinite number of possible slip planes (planes containing the dislocation line and the Burgers vector), unlike an edge or mixed dislocation, which has a unique slip plane.
Cassure conchoïdaleConchoidal fracture describes the way that brittle materials break or fracture when they do not follow any natural planes of separation. Mindat.org defines conchoidal fracture as follows: "a fracture with smooth, curved surfaces, typically slightly concave, showing concentric undulations resembling the lines of growth of a shell". Materials that break in this way include quartz, chert, flint, quartzite, jasper, and other fine-grained or amorphous materials with a composition of pure silica, such as obsidian and window glass, as well as a few metals, such as solid gallium.