Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
First-principles calculations have been used to investigate the defect properties and the site preference of FeAl and NiAl with ternary additions. It is found that a “triple-defect” structure model becomes invalid in describing the defect structure of FeAl (which is weakly ordered). The calculated mono-vacancy concentration on the Fe sites is lower than available experimental values by an order of magnitude, which may suggest the formation of defect complexes or the need of sufficiently long annealing time to anneal out quenched-in vacancies. For the site preference of ternary additions in FeAl, Cr and Ti are found to occupy Al sublattices, whereas Ni has a distinct preference for the Fe sites. The substitutional behavior of ternary elements in FeAl is consistent with the trend in the calculated heat-of-formation. For Fe addition in Al-rich NiAl, Fe atoms occupy Ni sublattices exclusively. The site preference of Fe addition in Ni-rich NiAl is dependent on alloy composition and temperature. At low temperatures, Fe atoms are found to preferentially occupy Al sublattices in Ni-rich alloys.