Correlation of yield strength with internal coherency strains for age-hardened Cu−Ni−Fe alloys

Abstract

The maximum yield strengths for a given aging temperature were measured for age-hardened Cu−Ni−Fe alloys. The yield strengths were found to be proportional to the difference in cubic lattice parameters of unstressed precipitating phases and independent of other factors such as precipitate particle size and precipitate volume fraction. The yield strength dependence on lattice parameter differences alone indicated coherency stresses controlled the yield strengths. An analysis of the yield strength based only on internal coherency strains and stresses subsequently led to the derivation of an equation for the yield strength,i.e.,${_{}^{} }$ where$m$ is the Taylor factor for converting from single crystal shear stress to polycrystalline tensile stress results,C _ijare single crystal elastic stiffness constants and Δa is the difference in, anda ₀ the average of the cubic lattice parameters of the precipitating phases. The equation indicates the yield strength is dependent only on the internal coherency strains and independent of particle size and precipitate volume fraction, as observed. The correlation of the experimentally measured yield strengths with the equation was quite good.