Precipitation Processes in Copper-Iron Alloys

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Measurements of the electrical resistivity of copper-iron alloys, in the annealed condition, have shown that the concept of `coherent' and `incoherent' precipitate can explain the observed features in the resistivity curve. Cold working of the alloys has been shown to result in resistivity changes which are compatible with the idea of `locking-in' of dislocation lines about the precipitated particles of iron. Calculation from x-ray observations of the distance apart of these particles gives a figure of approximately 10 -5 cm. This is quite close to that estimated from Orowan's equation for the distance between precipitate particles most effective for locking-in of dislocations in an age-hardened alloy. Estimates of the number of vacancies present in a 95% cold worked alloy suggest that vacancies alone will not account for the observed resistivity increases. At high degrees of cold working, dislocations are probably the predominant factor in increasing resistance.