Vacancy annealing kinetics during quenching

Abstract

The differential equations which describe the annealing of vacancies in pure metals have been solved to study the loss of vecancies during a quenching operation. Using a wide range of paremeters for the chosen metal, aluminium, it is shown that divacancies can account for a substantial fraction of the vacancy loss. The extent of decay depends on the ratio of sink density to quenching speed which is the result of a state of dynamic equilibrium existing during that part of the quench where decay is significant. Extrapolation methods given in the literature and used to derive values of formation energy are briefly discussed.