The Effect of Lattice Misfits on the Precipitation at Dislocations: Phase-Field Crystal Simulation

Hong Mao; Changlin Zeng; Zhikang Zhang; Xiong Shuai; Sai Tang

doi:10.3390/ma16186307

The Effect of Lattice Misfits on the Precipitation at Dislocations: Phase-Field Crystal Simulation

Materials (Basel). 2023 Sep 20;16(18):6307. doi: 10.3390/ma16186307.

Authors

Hong Mao^{1

2}, Changlin Zeng¹, Zhikang Zhang¹, Xiong Shuai³, Sai Tang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, College of Mechanical Engineering, Yueyang 414006, China.
² School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
³ International Institute for Inovation, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang 330013, China.
⁴ State Key Lab for Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.

Abstract

An atomic-scale approach was employed to simulate the formation of precipitates with different lattice misfits in the early stages of the aging of supersaturated aluminum alloys. The simulation results revealed that the increase in lattice misfits could significantly promote the nucleation rate of precipitates, which results in a larger number and smaller size of the precipitates. The morphologies of the precipitates also vary with the degree of a lattice misfit. Moreover, the higher the lattice misfit, the earlier the nucleation of the second phase occurs, which can substantially inhibit the movement of dislocations. The research on the lattice misfit of precipitation can provide theoretical guidance for the design of high-strength aluminum alloys.

Keywords: dislocation; lattice misfit; phase-field crystal simulation; precipitation.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52201010, Grant No. 51820105001) and the Research Science Institute of Education Department of Hunan Province (Grant No. 22B0684).