Quenching of Metals Containing Impurity. I. Face-Centered-Cubic Metals

General kinetic equations between vacancies, divacancies, and impurity atoms are presented. Some applications of these equations to the reactions during quenching are treated. The critical temperatures or freezing temperatures which determine the status after the quench are also given. The treatment shows that the cooling rate near the critical temperature is important, and these temperatures are rather low in usual cases. The treatment is in good agreement with the results of the actual change during quenching calculated by a digital computer. A relation between the binding energy BVi of an impurity atom and a vacancy and the solubility limit CL of the impurity is presented. A relation between the binding energy and the heat of solution H is also discussed. The tentative relation is BVi=0.52H=(-0.088 logCL+0.088) eV.