Microstructure-PropertiesIILecture9AgeHardening.pptVIP

Microstructure-Properties: IIAge Hardening 27-302 Lecture 9 Fall, 2002 Prof. A. D. Rollett Materials Tetrahedron Objective The objective of this lecture is to describe the relationship between precipitation and hardness as an example of a key microstructure-property relationship. References Phase transformations in metals and alloys, D.A. Porter, K.E. Easterling, Chapman Hall. Materials Principles Practice, Butterworth Heinemann, Edited by C. Newey G. Weaver. Mechanical Metallurgy, McGrawHill, G.E. Dieter, 3rd Ed. Hull, D. and D. J. Bacon (1984). Introduction to Dislocations. Oxford, UK, Pergamon. Courtney, T. H. (2000). Mechanical Behavior of Materials. Boston, McGraw-Hill. Notation a := lattice parametere := strain, misfit (or similar quantity to describe a hardening mechanism)G := shear modulusb := Burgers vectorr := Particle size (radius)f ?VV(a) := volume fraction (of precipitates)s := stress (macroscopic)t := shear stress (critical value, in some cases)g := boundary energy, e.g. anti-phase boundaryL3 := mean intercept length (of precipitates) l := mean spacing (of precipitates) Age Hardening Curves The most quoted age hardening curve is that for Al-Cu alloys performed in the late 40s. Keep in mind that age hardening was known empirically (Alfred Wilm) as a technologically useful treatment from the early days of aluminum alloys. Higher Cu contents result in higher maximum hardnesses because larger volume fractions of precipitate are possible. Al-Cu precipitation sequence The sequence is: a0 ? a1 + GP-zones ? a2 + q“? a3 + q’? a4 + q The phase are: an - fcc aluminum; nth subscript denotes each equilibriumGP zones - mono-atomic layers of Cu on (001)Al q“ - thin discs, fully coherent with matrix q’ - disc-shaped, semi-coherent on (001)q’ bct.  q - incoherent interface, ~spherical, complex body-centered tetragonal (bct). Al-Cu ppt structures Al-Cu microstructures This tableau shows which of the different ppt types are ass