Metallurgy Commons^™

Investigating Microalloying Elements To Accelerate Zirconium Trialuminide Precipitation In Aluminum Alloys, Philip D. Staublin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Precipitation of the L1₂-structured coherent Al₃Zr trialuminide phase in aluminum-zirconium alloys increases the alloy strength. Precipitation of a more refined dispersion of Al₃Zr can further increase the strength of these alloys. The addition of microalloying elements which bind to zirconium may accelerate the precipitation kinetics, allowing for nucleation of a greater number of precipitates and faster precipitate growth. Zirconium binding energies are computed for a wide range of elements, based on which the elements tin, antimony, and tellurium were selected for investigation. Ternary Al-Zr-X alloys (X = Sn, Sb, Te) were cast and heat …