Correlations between microstructures and properties of Cu-Ni-Si-Cr alloy

A commercial Cu-Ni-Si-Cr alloy used as a model material was annealed and then peak-aged. The detailed microstructure and property analyses were performed to determine the correlations between the microstructure characteristics and properties. Theoretical calculations, which gave results in good agreement with experimental results, demonstrated that solid-solution scattering and Orowan bypass of precipitate strengthening were the key mechanisms for electrical and mechanical properties, respectively. Furthermore, the effects of composition on the aging behaviors and then electrical and mechanical properties for Cu-Ni-Si series alloys were systematically investigated, showing that both the precipitation extent and mechanical properties improved simultaneously with nominal or effective concentration of the precipitates. Quick estimation on the basis of the present analysis procedure indicates that our work is applicable with high accuracy in real cases.