No Arabic abstract
The temporal evolution of ordered gamma-prime(L12)-precipitates and the compositional trajectories during phase-separation of the gamma(face-centered-cubic(f.c.c.)) and gamma-prime(L12)-phases are studied in a Ni-0.10Al-0.085Cr-0.02Re(mole-fraction) superalloy, utilizing atom-probe tomography, transmission electron microscopy, and the Philippe-Voorhees (PV) coarsening model. As the gamma-prime(L12)-precipitates grow, the excesses of Ni, Cr and Re, and depletion of Al in the gamma(f.c.c.)-matrix develop as a result of diffusional fluxes crossing gamma(f.c.c.)/gamma-prime(L12) heterophase interfaces. The coupling effects on diffusional fluxes was introduced (PV coarsening model) in terms of the diffusion tensor, D, and the second-derivative tensor of the molar Gibbs free energies, G, obtained employing Thermo-Calc and DICTRA calculations. The Gibbs interfacial free energies are (16.9 +- 3.4) mJ/m2 with all terms in D and G, which changes to (46.3 +- 5.1) mJ/m2, (92.3 +- 7.9) mJ/m2, and (-18.5 +- 2.6) mJ/m2 without including the off-diagonal terms in D, G, and both D and G, respectively. The experimental APT compositional trajectories are displayed and compared with the PV model in a partial quaternary phase-diagram, employing a tetrahedron. The compositional trajectories measured by APT exhibit curvilinear behavior in the nucleation and growth regimes, which become vectors, moving simultaneously toward the gamma(f.c.c.) and gamma-prime(L12) conjugate solvus-surfaces, for the quasi-stationary coarsening regime. The compositional trajectories are compared to the PV model with and without the off-diagonal terms in D and G. The directions including the off-diagonal terms in D and G tensors are consistent with the APT experimental data.
The compositional diffusional-trajectories for a phase separation of gamma(f.c.c.)/gamma-prime(L12) phases are studied in a quaternary Ni-10Al-8.5Cr-2Re alloy, aged at 700 deg.C for 0 to 1024 h, utilizing atom-probe tomography (APT). As the gamma-prime(L12)-precipitates grow, the enrichments of Ni, Cr, and Re and depletion of Al on the gamma(f.c.c.) matrix-side develop as a result of diffusional fluxes crossing the gamma(f.c.c.)/gamma-prime(L12) interface.The experimental (APT) compositional trajectories of the two-phases, gamma(f.c.c.)/gamma-prime(L12), are displayed in a quaternary phase-diagram, employing a tetrahedron, and compared with the Philippe-Voorhees (P-V) coarsening model which includes the off-diagonal terms in the diffusion tensor for the multi-component system.
We describe a simple method to determine, from ab initio calculations, the complete orientation-dependence of interfacial free energies in solid-state crystalline systems. We illustrate the method with an application to precipitates in the Al-Ti alloy system. The method combines the cluster expansion formalism in its most general form (to model the systems energetics) with the inversion of the well-known Wulff construction (to recover interfacial energies from equilibrium precipitate shapes). Although the inverse Wulff construction only provides the relative magnitude of the various interfacial free energies, absolute free energies can be recovered from a calculation of a single, conveniently chosen, planar interface. The method is able to account for essentially all sources of entropy (arising from phonons, bulk point defects, as well as interface roughness) and is thus able to transparently handle both atomically smooth and rough interfaces. The approach expresses the resulting orientation-dependence of the interfacial properties using symmetry-adapted bases for general orientation-dependent quantities. As a by-product, this paper thus provides a simple and general method to generate such basis functions, which prove useful in a variety of other applications, for instance to represent the anisotropy of the so-called constituent strain elastic energy.
On the basis of the density functional calculations in combination with the supercell approach, we report on a complete study of the influences of atomic arrangement and Ni substitution for Al on the ground state structural and magnetic properties for Fe$_2$Ni$_{1+x}$Al$_{1-x}$ Heusler alloys. We discuss systematically the competition between five cubic Heusler-type structures formed by shuffles of Fe and Ni atoms to reveal routes for improving the phase stability and magnetic properties, in particular magnetocrystalline anisotropy~(MAE). We predict that in case of Fe$_2$NiAl the ground state cubic structure with alternated layers of Fe and Ni possesses the highest uniaxial MAE which twice larger than that for the tetragonal L1$_0$ FeNi. The successive Ni doping at Al sublattice leads to a change of ground state structure and to reduce of the MAE. In addition, the phase stability against the decomposition into the stable systems at finite-temperatures is discussed. All~Ni-rich Fe$_2$Ni$_{1+x}$Al$_{1-x}$ are turned to be decomposed into a dual-phase consisting of Fe$_2$NiAl and FeNi.
Laser ablation of Al-Ni alloys and Al films on Ni substrates has been studied by molecular dynamics simulations (MD). The MD method was combined with a two-temperature model to describe the interaction between the laser beam, the electrons and the atoms. The challenge for alloys and mixtures is to find the electronic parameters: electron heat conductivity, electron heat capacity and electron-phonon coupling parameter. The challenge for layered systems is to run simulations of an inhomogeneous system which requires modification of the simulation code. Ablation and laser-induced melting was studied for several Al-Ni compounds. At low fluences above the threshold ordinary ablation behavior occurred while at high fluences the ablation mechanism changed in Al$_3$Ni and AlNi$_3$ from phase explosion to vaporization. Al films of various thicknesses on a Ni substrate have also been simulated. Above threshold, 8 nm Al films are ablated as a whole while 24 nm Al films are only partially removed. Below threshold, alloying with a mixture gradient has been observed in the thin layer system.
Most of the commercially important alloys are multicomponent, producing multiphase microstructures as a result of processing. When the coexisting phases are elastically coherent, the elastic interactions between these phases play a major role in the development of microstructures. To elucidate the key effects of elastic stress on microstructural evolution when more than two misfitting phases are present in the microstructure, we have developed a microelastic phase-field model in two dimensions to study phase separation in ternary alloy system. Numerical solutions of a set of coupled Cahn-Hilliard equations for the composition fields govern the spatiotemporal evolution of the three-phase microstructure. The model incorporates coherency strain interactions between the phases using Khachaturyans microelasticity theory. We systematically vary the misfit strains (magnitude and sign) between the phases along with the bulk alloy composition to study their effects on the morphological development of the phases and the resulting phase separation kinetics. We also vary the ratio of interfacial energies between the phases to understand the interplay between elastic and interfacial energies on morphological evolution. The sign and degree of misfit affect strain partitioning between the phases during spinodal decomposition, thereby affecting their compositional history and morphology. Moreover, strain partitioning affects solute partitioning and alters the kinetics of coarsening of the phases. The phases associated with higher misfit strain appear coarser and exhibit wider size distribution compared to those having lower misfit. When the interfacial energies satisfy complete wetting condition, phase separation leads to development of stable core-shell morphology depending on the misfit between the core (wetted) and the shell (wetting) phases.