Effect of thermomechanical treatment on the phase transformation in Cu-44Ni-5Cr alloy

Abstract

Cu-44Ni-5Cr alloy has been subjected to thermomechanical treatment which consisted of plastic deformation of as-quenched material by 50, 65 and 80% reduction in thickness followed by ageing in the interval of 500 to 650 C for various durations of time. Progress in age-hardening was studied by means of hardness measurement and X-ray diffraction studies. The wavelength of composition modulation and strain amplitude were measured. It was found that age-hardening was a result of interaction between spinodal decomposition and recovery processes. Prior deformation was found to enhance the kinetics of both spinodal decomposition and coarsening. It was concluded that this resulted from increased vacancy concentration and increased coherency strain in the cold-worked material. 1994 Chapman & Hall.