Premium
Thermodynamic Investigation of Alkali‐Metal‐Induced High Temperature Embrittlement in Al‐Li Alloys
Author(s) -
Zhang S.,
Han Q.,
Liu Z.K.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.200700183
Subject(s) - materials science , embrittlement , liquid metal embrittlement , alkali metal , metallurgy , grain boundary , impurity , intergranular corrosion , aluminium , lithium (medication) , phase (matter) , corrosion , microstructure , chemistry , medicine , organic chemistry , endocrinology
Alkali metals are undesirable impurity elements in aluminum‐lithium alloys. Despite their trace amount, they lead to high temperature embrittlement (HTE). In the present work, the results of a thermodynamic investigation are presented to elucidate its mechanism and compared with available experimental data. HTE arises from an intergranular alkali‐metal‐rich liquid phase that segregates into grain boundaries from the matrix and significantly weakens their strength. A new model is developed to describe the tendency of HTE, which shows grain refinement can decrease the tendency.