This article provides a thorough review of the physical metallurgy of aluminum alloys and its role in determining the properties and from a design and manufacturing perspective. And its role in include the effects of composition, mechanical working, and/or heat treatment on structure and properties. This article focuses on the effects of alloying and the metallurgical factors on phase constituents, structure, and properties of aluminum alloys. Effects from different combinations of alloying elements are described in terms of relevant alloy phase diagrams. The article addresses the underlying alloying and structural aspects that affect the properties and possible processing routes of aluminum alloys. It provides information on the heat treatment effects on the physical properties of aluminum alloys and the microstructural effects on the fatigue and fracture of aluminum alloys. The important alloying elements and impurities are listed alphabetically as a concise review of major effects.

This article reviews the factors influencing carburization to improve wear resistance of steel, such as operating temperature, cost, production volume, types of wear, and design criteria. It details the types of wear, namely abrasive wear and adhesive wear. The article discusses the characteristics of carburized steels that affect wear resistance, including hardness, microstructure, retained austenite, and carbides. It also describes the processing considerations for carburization of titanium.

The transformation of austenite of cast irons represents a more complex and less studied subject. This article discusses the general features of the decomposition of austenite into bainite. It describes the heat treatment cycles of austempered cast iron microstructure. The article reviews several factors, such as presence of graphite and austenite grain size, which affect the transformation rate of austenite during austempering of free-graphite cast irons.

This article discusses the stable and metastable three-phase fields in the binary Fe-C phase diagram. It schematically illustrates that austenite decomposition requires accounting for nucleation and growth of ferrite and then nucleation and growth of pearlite in the remaining untransformed volume. The article describes the austenite decomposition to ferrite and pearlite in spheroidal graphite irons and lamellar graphite irons. It provides a discussion on modeling austenite decomposition to ferrite and pearlite.

The solidification of hypoeutectic cast iron starts with the nucleation and growth of austenite dendrites, while that of hypereutectic iron starts with the crystallization of primary graphite in the stable system or cementite in the metastable system. This article begins with a discussion on the nucleation and growth of austenite dendrites. It describes the nucleation of lamellar graphite, spheroidal graphite, and austenite-iron carbide eutectic. The article reviews three main graphite morphologies crystallizing from the iron melts during solidification: lamellar (LG), compacted or vermicular (CG), and spheroidal. It discusses the metastable solidification of austenite-iron carbide eutectic and concludes with information on gray-to-white structural transition of cast iron.

Gray irons are a group of cast irons that form flake graphite during solidification, in contrast to the spheroidal graphite morphology of ductile irons. This article describes surface hardening of gray irons by flame and induction heating. It provides information on the classification of the gray irons in ASTM specification. The article presents examples that illustrate the use of stress relieving to eliminate distortion and cracking. It describes the three annealing treatments of gray iron: ferritizing annealing, medium (or full) annealing, and graphitizing annealing. The article discusses the parameters of the tensile strength and hardness of a normalized gray iron casting. These include combined carbon content, pearlite spacing, and graphite morphology. The article concludes with a discussion on the induction hardening of gray iron castings.

The control of the solidification process of cast iron requires understanding and control of the thermodynamics of the liquid and solid phases and of the kinetics of their solidification, including nucleation and growth. This article addresses issues that allow for the determination of probability of formation and relative stability of various phases. These include the influence of temperature and composition on solubility of various elements in iron-base alloys; calculation of solubility lines, relevant to the construction of phase diagrams; and calculation of activity of various components. It discusses the role of alloying elements in terms of their influence on the activity of carbon, which provides information on the stability of the main carbon-rich phases of iron-carbon alloys, that is, graphite and cementite. The article reviews the carbon solubility in multicomponent systems, along with saturation degree and carbon equivalent.

This article discusses the characterization of gray iron structures, following the sequence of structure formation, as it applies to unalloyed or low-alloyed gray iron. Austenite grains are the basic crystallographic entities of the metallic matrix in gray cast iron precipitated from the liquid melt. The article describes the macrostructure and dendrite morphology of primary austenite. Eutectoid transformation in the solid state causes the transformation of austenite to pearlite and/or ferrite, producing the as-cast structure. The article discusses the observations of the graphite and ferritic/pearlitic structure in as-cast gray iron.

This article provides a detailed discussion on the heat treatment processes for titanium and titanium alloys. These processes are age hardening, solution treatment, aging, and annealing. The article illustrates the characteristics of equilibrium phase diagrams that are important for understanding the heat treatment of titanium alloys. It explains the types of metastable phases encountered in titanium alloys. The article also provides information on the equilibrium phase relationships and properties of titanium alloys.

This article describes the effects of alloying and heat treatment on the metastable transition precipitates that occur in age hardenable aluminum alloys. Early precipitation stages are less well understood than later ones. This article details the aging sequence and characteristics of precipitates that occur in the natural aging and artificial aging of Al-Mg-Si-(Cu) alloys, Al-Mg-Cu alloys, microalloyed Al-Mg-Cu-(Ag, Si) alloys, aluminum-lithium-base alloys, and Al-Zn-Mg-(Cu) alloys. Crystal structure, composition, dimensions, and aging conditions of precipitates are detailed. Effects of reversion, duplex annealing, and retrogression and re-aging are included.

This article discusses the various methods for evaluating the quench sensitivity of aluminum alloys, namely, time-temperature-property diagrams, the quench factor analysis, the Jominy end-quench method, and continuous-cooling precipitation diagrams. It briefly describes the procedures, applications, advantages, and limitations of these methods.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which ytterbium (Yb) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which zinc (Zn) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which tantalum (Ta) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which rhodium (Rh) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which terbium (Tb) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which lanthanum (La) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which ruthenium (Ru) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.

This article is a compilation of binary alloy phase diagrams for which tellurium (Te) is the first named element in the binary pair. The diagrams are presented with element compositions in weight percent. The atomic percent compositions are given in a secondary scale. For each binary system, a table of crystallographic data is provided that includes the composition, Pearson symbol, space group, and prototype for each phase.