Assessment of the precipitation kinetics of Al3Sc and Al3Li in binary alloys using an improved cluster dynamics model

Abstract

Precipitation is a natural phenomenon that is known to play an important role in the strengthening of Al–Li alloys. Cluster dynamics is powerful and effective in modeling the precipitation kinetics of precipitates in heat-treatable metallic materials, especially in the early stage. In this work, a cluster dynamics model with cluster mobility is further developed by redefining the effective monomer diffusivity for self-consistently modeling multicomponent and multiphase precipitation. The precipitation kinetic data for Al₃Sc in Al–Sc binary alloys and Al₃Li in Al–Li binary alloys are systematically reviewed and evaluated. The metastable fcc_A1/Al₃Li two-phase equilibria are reoptimized using the split four sublattice compound energy formalism to accommodate both the related phase equilibrium measurements and precipitation kinetic measurements. One set of precipitation kinetic parameters is respectively assessed for each of the two precipitate phases. The improved cluster dynamics model, together with the assessed model parameters, can reasonably reproduce the reliable experimental precipitation kinetic data of the two phases. The model parameter determination includes extensive sensitivity studies to use physically reasonable values, and the present work also studies the use of cluster mobility in modeling the early stage precipitation kinetics. The present work indicates that the obtained model parameters can be used to develop the fundamental informative CALPHAD-type precipitation kinetic database.