Mesoscopic modelling of precipitation: A tool for extracting physical parameters of phase transformations in metallic alloys

Classical Nucleation and Growth Theories provide a compelling framework predicting the nucleation and growth of precipitates. When implemented in a class model, such an approach provides the time evolution of the Particle Size Distribution. It is shown in this article that a reversion treatment (instantaneous heating of the microstructure to a temperature high enough to induce some dissolution of the precipitates) can be used to calibrate all physical parameters of the model independently: (i) the solubility limit of alloying element is related to the equilibrium volume fraction; (ii) the interfacial energy is related to the minimum of volume fraction evolution; and (iii) the diffusion constant is related to the kinetics of the precipitate radii evolution. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of Academie des sciences.