Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
We have investigated several specimens of ASTM A710 steel containing copper-rich precipitates with variations in the final aging treatment. X-ray diffraction line-broadening and small-angle neutron-scattering experiments revealed the existence of the precipitates and associated coherency strain. We determined the nonlinear ultrasonic parameter β for each specimen by harmonic-generation experiments and measured the ultrasonic longitudinal velocity νL and attenuation αL. Although νL and αL showed no consistent trends, β increased with increasing strain. This correlation is compared to a microstructural model for harmonic generation that includes a contribution from precipitate-pinned dislocations.
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