Handbook of Mechanical Alloy Design
edited by George E. Totten, Lin Xie, Kiyoshi Funatani
BRIEF CONTENTS
Part One – Design Principles
- Basic Principles
- Risk-Based Metallurgical Design
Part Two – Alloy Design
- Designing with Carbon-, Low-, and Medium-Alloy Steels
- Designing with Tool Steel
- Designing with High-Strength Low-Alloy Steels
- Designing with Microalloyed and Interstitial-Free Steels
- Designing with Stainless Steel
- Cast Iron Design: Processes, Alloys, and Properties
- Designing with Aluminum Alloys
- Designing with Magnesium: Alloys, Properties, and Casting Processes
- Designing with Titanium Alloys
- Designing with Ni-Base Alloys
- Designing with Copper Alloys
- Designing with Powder Metallurgy Alloys
- Designing with Metal-Matrix Composites
Some interesting data from “Designing with Aluminum Alloys”
Table 1 – Invariant Reactions and Maximum Solubilities in Binary Aluminum Alloys
Notes: Pure aluminum has very low strength and cannot be used for structural applications. When alloyed with other elements, however, it gains strength by various strengthening mechanisms. Aluminum can be alloyed with most metallic elements, but only some have enough solid solubility to be used as major alloying elements. Of more importance are copper, magnesium, silicon, and zinc (Table 1). However, a considerable number of other elements have pronounced effect on improving the properties of aluminum alloys. These include chromium, manganese, and zirconium, which are used primarily to control grain structure. Maximum solid solubility in aluminum alloys usually occurs at eutectic, peritectic, or monotectic temperature. Solid solubility decreases with decreasing temperature. Such change of solid solubility with temperature is the basis of age hardening.
Table 4 – Precipitation Sequences in Selected Aluminum Alloys
Notes: The decomposition process of the supersaturated solid solution (SSSS) is very complex and the resulting precipitation sequence varies depending on the respective alloy systems. Probable precipitation sequences in typical aluminum alloys are shown in Table 4. In general, Guinier–Preston (GP) zones and one or more metastable transition phases may be formed prior to the formation of equilibrium phase. GP zones are ordered, solute-rich clusters of atoms which are homogeneously nucleated in the matrix. They are about one or two atomic layers thick and fully coherent with the matrix.
