PRECIPITATION EVOLUTION IN AN AL-CU SUPERALLOY AS A FUNCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURES

Ming-Hsien Wen1, Cheng-Si Tsao2, Chun-Jen Su3, U-Ser Jeng3, and E-Wen Huang1* 1 Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan. 2 Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Taoyuan, Taiwan. 3 National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan. *E-mail:pc238223@hotmail.com Abstract An experimental investigation, combining synchrotron X-ray diffraction and small-angle scattering to study the microstructure evolution and phase transformation of the precipitation in an Al-Cu superalloy. Upon increasing the temperatures during precipitation process, the dissolution and the nucleation of different phases are characterized. The small-angle X-ray scattering profiles demonstrate the temporal behavior of structural evolution of the precipitates. The X-ray diffraction patterns records the spatial relationship of various precipitates during the phase transformation and reflect the phase transformation of the precipitates during the heating. The present study provides the insight of the phase transformation structural characteristics in the Al-Cu system from the lattice structure to the nano-scale morphological geometry simultaneously. Keywords: X-ray, synchrotron, precipitation, and phase transformation