Modelling of solidification and heat treatment for the prediction of yield stress of cast alloys

Paper presented at the 7th European Conference EUROMAT 2001, Rimini, 10-14 june 2001International audienceA model is developed for the prediction of the microstructure evolution of cast alloys during its industrial process route. The materials under consideration are binary aluminium-copper alloys. The process are casting, homogenising and ageing. A suite of models is built, which successively calculates microsegregation taking place duríng solidification and homogenisation, and precipitation occurring during ageing of the alloy. As a final output, the model permits the final yield stress of the material to be calculated as a function of the process parameters (i.e., casting cooling rate, inoculation of the alloy, duration and temperature of the homogenising and ageing heat treatments). This is made possible by introducing a structural hardening model between the diffusion driven phase transformation models and a final mechanical model for heterogeneous materials