SEMINAR PRESENTATION

ON
ALLOY SYSTEM, PHASE DIAGRAMS AND PHASE
TRANSFORMATIONS

BY

ISINKAYE BOLUWATIFE AYOMIDE

MATRIC NO: 1808008058

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
 OUTLINE
• INTRODUCTION
• ALLOY SYSTEMS
• SOLID SOLUTIONS
• THE FAMILIES OF ENGINEERING ALLOYS
• HUME-ROTHERY’S RULE
• INTERMEDIATE PHASES
• PHASE DIAGRAMS
• THE PHASE RULE
• COOLING CURVES (TIME-TEMPERATURE CURVES)
• CONSTRUCTION OF PHASE DIAGRAM
• THE LEVER RULE
• CERAMIC AND TERNARY PHASE DIAGRAMS
• APPLICATIONS OF PHASE DIAGRAMS
• CORING
• PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
• THE KINETICS OF SOLID STATE REACTIONS
• MULTIPHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
 INTRODUCTION
• Metals in actual commercial use are almost exclusively alloys, and not pure
metals, since it is possible for the design engineer to realize an infinite variety of
physical properties in the product by varying the metallic composition of the
alloy.
• A homogeneous mixture of two or more metals or a metal and a non-metal when
fused together at a certain temperature forms a new metal after solidification,
termed as an alloy.
• Alloys are normally harder than their components, less ductile and may have a
much lower conductivity, whereas the highly purified single crystal of a metal is
very soft and malleable, with high electrical conductivity.
• Metal alloys by virtue of composition, are often grouped into two classes
(i) Ferrous alloys
(ii) Nonferrous
 ALLOY SYSTEMS
• The improvement in the properties of an alloy system depends upon the following
factors:
(i)Manner in which the two or more metals are mixed with each other.
(ii) The percentage of different alloying metals/or elements.
(iii) Temperature at which these are cooled, etc.
• When an alloy is in a liquid state the atoms of the constituent are distributed randomly
through the liquid. When solidification takes place, there appears number of possibilities.
A number of different types of solutions may form, as follows:
(a) Simple Eutectic Type
(b) Solid Solution Type
(c) Combination Type
(d) Inter-metallic Compounds
 SOLID SOLUTIONS
• A solid solution forms when, as the solute atoms are added to the host material, the crystal
structure is maintained, and no new structures are formed.
• Solid solutions form readily when solvent and solute atoms have similar sizes and electron
structures, so that it is compositionally or chemically homogeneous and the component atoms
of the elements cannot be distinguished physically or separated mechanically.
• Basically, solid solutions are of two types, Substitutional Solid Solution & Interstitial Solid
Solutions
 THE FAMILIES OF ENGINEERING ALLOYS
• Engineering alloys are generally placed under the following three groups based on aluminium,
magnesium and titanium.
• Aluminium alloys have a relatively low melting temperature, but exhibit a high shrinkage during
solidification. There are two important aluminium-alloy families which are non-heat-treatable
alloys & heat-treatable alloys.
• Copper and its alloys are widely used because of their high electrical and thermal conductivity,
corrosion resistance, and ease of fabrication.
• Lead has increased applications as a material for controlling sound and mechanical vibration, due
to its high damping capacity.
• The main uses of Zn are as an alloying element (e.g. in copper) and as a protective coating for steel
(galvanising, etc.).
• Commercially pure nickel offers excellent corrosion resistance to reducing environments, and are
found in the chemical processing industry, as well as in food processing applications.
• Steels forms a large group of engineering alloys. Usually these alloys are divided into three groups:
(i)low carbon steels
(ii) engineering steels
(iii) stainless steels.
 HUME-ROTHERY’S RULE

• While developing an alloy, it is frequently desirable to increase the strength of the alloy by
adding a metal that will form a solid solution.

• Hume-Rothery has framed empirical rules that govern the choice of alloying elements in
the formation of substitutional solutions.

INTERMEDIATE PHASES

• Crystals formed by various elements and having their own type of crystal lattice which
differs from the crystal lattices of the component elements are called intermediate phases.

• Intermediate phases may have any type of bond which depends on their components and
determines largely the properties of the crystals, in particular, electric properties.
 PHASE DIAGRAMS
• The study of phase relationships plays an important and vital role in the better understanding
of the properties of materials.
• Much of the information about the control of microstructure or phase structure of a particular
alloy system is properly displayed in what is called a phase diagram, also called as an
equilibrium or constitutional diagram.
• Phase diagrams are clear maps that give the relationships between phases in thermodynamic
equilibrium in a system as a function of temperature, pressure and composition.
THE PHASE RULE
• This expresses mathematically the general relationships for the existence of stable phases
corresponding to the equilibrium conditions.
• It enables us to predict and check the processes that occur in alloys during heating or cooling.
• Using this rule, it is possible to determine whether the solidification process takes place at a
constant temperature or within a certain temperature interval; it can also indicate the number
of phases that can exist simultaneously in a system.
 COOLING CURVES (TIME-TEMPERATURE CURVES)
• It is interesting to study the manner in which temperature changes with time as the liquid
metal solidifies.

Variation of Temperature with Time Inverse Rate or Derived Cooling Curve Slow and Rapid Cooling Curves
 CONSTRUCTION OF PHASE DIAGRAM
• Depending upon the number of components and solubility characteristic, the phase
diagrams are usually categorised as follows:
(i) Solid Solution Type: In this case two metals are completely soluble in solid as well as in
liquid state. They have the same type of lattice and similar atomic size. Copper and Nickel
form an isomorphous system.
(ii) Eutectic Type: When two metals are completely soluble in the liquid state but partly or
completely insoluble in the solid state, is termed as eutectic type. Fe-C, Al-Mn, Pb-Sn
form an eutectic system.
(iii) Peritectic Type: In this case liquid and solid combine to form a new solid. The melting
points of two metals differ considerably. Ag and Pt form such a system.
(iv)Monotectic Type: In this case the two liquid solutions are not soluble in each other over a
certain composition range, i.e., there is a miscibility gap in liquid state between the two
metals. In this type one liquid decomposes into another liquid solid. Cu and Pb form
monotectic system.
(v) Eutectoid Type: In this one solid decomposes into two different solids. Obviously, solid
to solid transformation takes place. Fe-C, Cu-Zn, Al-Cu, Cu-Sn, etc form eutectoid system
 THE LEVER RULE
• This rule helps to calculate the relative proportions of solid and liquid material present in
the mixture at any given temperature.
• The number and composition of phases can be obtained from the phase diagram.
CERAMIC AND TERNARY PHASE DIAGRAMS
• Ceramic and ternary and more complex alloys are widely used in engineering.
• Here, it is very important to mention that we should not assume that phase diagrams exist
only for metal-metal systems.
• Phase diagrams that are very useful in the design and processing of ceramic systems have
been experimentally determined for quit number of these materials.
APPLICATIONS OF PHASE DIAGRAMS
•One of the most important application of phase diagram is in the Zone refining of materials.
•It is also termed as fractional solidification.
•A separation is brought about by crystallization of a melt without adding solvent.
• A massive solid is formed slowly with a sizeable temperature gradient imposed at the solid-
liquid interface.
 CORING
• In thermal equilibrium diagram, it is assumed that cooling will be slow enough for
equilibrium to be maintained.
• However, during actual operating condition where rate of cooling is more rapid, e.g. the
production of Cu-Ni alloy, there is insufficient time for complete diffusion to take place.

PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
• The development of microstructure in both single-and two-phase alloys ordinarily involves
some type of phase transformation.
• Phase transformation means a change in the number and/or character of the phases that
constitute the microstructure of an alloy.

THE KINETICS OF SOLID STATE REACTIONS

• It is observed that most solid-state transformations do not occur instantaneously because
obstacles impede the course of reaction and make it dependent on time.
 MULTIPHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
• Phase transformations may be wrought in metal alloy systems by varying temperature,
composition, and the external pressure.
• However, temperature changes by means of heat treatments are most conveniently
utilized to induce phase transformations.
• This happens to correspond to crossing a phase boundary on the composition
temperature phase diagram as an alloy of given composition is heated or cooled.

APPLICATIONS OF PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS

• Phase transformations are usually observed in microstructural changes in cooling or
freezing (dendrite formation), in castings, in amorphous structures (solidification
phenomenon in glassy structures), in heat treatment.
• Phase transformations are also observed in recrystallization and grain growth during
mechanical working.
• Obviously, phase transformations are of great technological importance.
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