Effect of grain refinement on phase transformation behavior and mechanical properties of Cu-based alloy

A small amount of misch metal was added to Cu-Zn-Al alloy in order to study its effect on grain refinement, mechanical properties, phase transformation behavior and stabilization of martensite. It is found that the addition of misch metal is very effective for reducing the grain size. The coarse grains over 1 000 μm are refined to the size of 30 μm by the addition of 0.43% (mass fraction) misch metal. The grain size of thermo-mechanically treated alloys is barely affected by cold working. The fracture strength and ductility increase significantly with the increase of misch metal content when tensile test is carried out below Mf temperature. Also, the fracture strength is larger in the case of post-quench ageing treatment than that in the case of direct quench ageing treatment. The fracture mode is changed from transgranular brittle fracture to ductile fracture with void formation and coalescence by the addition of misch metal.