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Precipitates are the primary source of strength for the Al-Mg-Si alloy. Aluminum alloy in the peak-aged state mainly contains β" and β' precipitates. Most of the literature has only considered the strengthening effect of β". Here, we develop a single-crystal intensity model including both precipitate enhancement effects for the first time. This model was subsequently implemented into a crystal plastic finite-element method to model the uniaxial tensile process of a polycrystalline aggregate model of Al-Mg-Si alloy. The simulation results for uniaxial stretching are in good agreement with the experimental results, confirming that the constitutive parameters used for the single-crystal strength model with two precipitates are based on realistic physical implications. Furthermore, by comparing the uniaxial tensile simulation results of a peak-aged alloy considering the actual precipitated phase composition of the alloy with those assuming that the precipitated phase is only the β" phase, the predicted tensile strength of the former is around 5.65% lower than that of the latter, suggesting that the two kinds of precipitation should be separately considered when simulating the mechanical response of Al-Mg-Si alloy. It is highly expected that the present simulation strategy is not limited to Al-Mg-Si alloys, and it can be equally applied to the other age-enhanced alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An inverse model is proposed to construct the mathematical relationship between continuous cooling transformation (CCT) kinetics with constant rates and the isothermal one. The kinetic parameters in JMAK equations of isothermal kinetics can be deduced from the experimental CCT kinetics. Furthermore, a generalized model with a new additive rule is developed for predicting the kinetics of nucleation and growth during diffusional phase transformation with arbitrary cooling paths based only on CCT curve. A generalized contribution coefficient is introduced into the new additivity rule to describe the influences of current temperature and cooling rate on the incubation time of nuclei. Finally, then the reliability of the proposed model is validated using dilatometry experiments of a microalloy steel with fully bainitic microstructure based on various cooling routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Phase-field modelling of Widmanstätten ferrite formation. [•] The KKS phase-field model can quantitatively predict the transformation kinetics. [•] The evolution of morphology, lengthening rate and plate spacing were investigated. [•] The formation mechanism of Widmanstätten ferrite was further revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hot stamping process has been increasingly used in newly designed vehicles to improve crash worthiness and fuel efficiency. In this study, a finite element model based on a subroutine of the commercial software ABAQUS is developed to predict the interactive influence of temperature field and phase transformation on high-strength boron steel. JMAK-type equations with the incubation time and additivity hypothesis are adopted to describe the austenite decomposition into ferrite, pearlite and bainite, while the Koistinen and Marburger (K–M) model is used to describe the displacive transformation of matensite. The simulation results show that the introduction of incubation time into a JMAK equation can provide a more reasonable prediction of the transformation kinetics than if the equation is unmodified. A comparison between the simulation and the standard Jominy end-quenching test demonstrates the capability of the present model for the prediction of transformation kinetics, microstructure distribution and mechanical properties. Furthermore, the adoption of experimentally measured microhardness values for the individual phase constituent can produce improved accuracy of the hardness predictions compared to the empirical hardness equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]