Heterogeneous precipitation on dislocations: effect of the elastic field on precipitate morphology

Abstract

The shape of a coherent non-misfitting FeC precipitate formed from solute atoms that interact with a dislocation stress field was studied using kinetic Monte Carlo simulation on a rigid lattice. The system studied is a model for binary alloys with an interstitial alloying element similar to Fe–C. The interaction with the dislocation comprises both a short-range chemical term and a long-range deformation field. The effect of each of these terms on precipitate shapes for different C supersaturations was investigated. A simple analytical model is proposed to rationalize the results obtained in the atomistic simulations.

Keywords:

• equilibrium shape of precipitate
• dislocation
• elastic field
• Monte Carlo

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the joint research programme “Precipitation” between CEA, Arcelor, CNRS and Pechiney-Alcan. We gratefully acknowledge useful and stimulating discussions with Bernard Legrand and Vincent Barbe.