Abstract

The influence of different precipitation treatments upon the radiation-induced void formation was studied on an Al-Mg-Si alloy and the results were compared with those obtained on high-purity Al. The changes in the microstructure and the void formation were investigated by TEM methods for the dose range 0.8 to 80 dpa and the temperature range 55 to 250° C. The irradiations were carried out using 100 keV Al ions. Highpurity Al showed void formation over the whole temperature range investigated with a maximum volume increase ΔV/V of 3.4% at 150° C. The behaviour of the Al-Mg-Si alloys depends strongly upon the thermal pretreatments. The alloy in its homogenized state shows no voids between 55 and 140° C. Trapping of vacancies on solute Si atoms could be the explanation. An ageing treatment leading to coherent precipitates results in the complete suppression of void formation for the temperature region of highest swelling (0.35 Ts⩽T⩽0.44 Ts). On the other hand, treatments which cause incoherent or partially coherent precipitates result in swelling. The amount of swelling, however, is lower compared to pure Al and the temperature of the swell maximum is shifted to lower temperatures. These results could be explained by the mechanism of trapping vacancies by solute atoms, on the one hand, and the coherent precipitates acting as recombination centres, on the other.

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