Models of particle destruction in fatigued precipitation-hardened alloys

In cyclic deformation experiments precipitation-hardened alloys in many cases show a softening effect after a hardening period. The softening occurs because the precipitates are destructed by gliding dislocations. For the destruction mainly two mechanisms are suggested. i) Disordering of ordered particles or ii) dissolution after repeated cutting by gliding dislocations. In this paper models for mechanism ii) are suggested which ascribe the destruction of particles in “wavy” slip materials to irreversible glide of dislocations and in “planar” slip materials to the cutting of the precipitates by series of dislocations.