Effects of composition and thermal cycle on transformation behaviors, thermal stability and mechanical properties of CuAlAg alloy

The phase transformation behavior, mechanical properties and the thermal stability of CuAlAg alloy were studied, and minor rare earth (0.1 wt pct La+Ce) was added to improve the mechanical property of the studied alloy. It is found that Ag addition in the CuAl binary alloy can improve the stability of martensitic transformation and high Al content leads to the disappearing of martensitic transformation. The tensile strength and strain of the Cu-10.6Al-5.8Ag (wt pct) alloy were measured to be 383.5 MPa and 0.86%, respectively. With rare earth addition, the tensile strain increased from 0.86% to 1.47%. The CuAlAg alloy did not exhibit martensitic transformation on the second heating process. Its poor thermal stability still needs to be improved.