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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Particle-size-distribution effects in precipitation hardening. Third annual progress report, February 1, 1971-December 31, 1971

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6422644
Theoretical work on the diffusion-controlled coarsening of spherical precipitates, grain-boundary precipitates, and fibers in unidirectionally solidified eutectics was completed. Several theoretical problems involving nearest neighbor particle spacings were solved and a unified method for describing the theoretical cumulative distribution functions associated with the three coarsening processes was developed. Experimental data on the coarsening of ..gamma..' precipitates in aged Ni-Cr-Al alloys show that there is no effect of volume fraction on the ..gamma..' coarsening kinetics, in contradiction to our earlier work on these same alloys. The new results are a consequence of improved statistical measurements and computer processing of the raw data. The initial observations on ..gamma..' coarsening in bimodal distributions are described. It is shown that a minimum ..gamma..' coarsening in bimodal distributions are described. It is shown that a minimum ..gamma..' particle spacing for the class I precipitates (which form on aging at 800/sup 0/C) is necessary in order for class II ..gamma..' precipitates (which form on reaging at 600/sup 0/C) to exist. For small spacings the ..gamma..' particle size distributions remain unimodal. Reasons for this behavior are discussed. Results on sinusoidal aging of ..gamma../..gamma..' alloys show that sinusoidal aging accelerates the growth rate of the average ..gamma..' particle. The influence of amplitude and frequency is described.
Research Organization:
California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). School of Engineering and Applied Science
DOE Contract Number:
AT03-76ER70172
OSTI ID:
6422644
Report Number(s):
UCLA-ENG-7214; UCLA-34P172-7
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English