Ternary rare-earth aluminum systems with copper: A review and a contribution to their assessment

Constitutional data of the R-Cu-Al systems, with R = rare earth, are summarized and discussed. Crystal structures of the phases formed in the binary boundary systems and in the ternary systems are assessed, and the phase equilibria observed in the reported ternary systems are reviewed with special attention given to the isothermal and polythermal sections of the phase diagrams. Some regularities observed in the trends of the constitutional properties of the ternary R-Cu-Al alloys are briefly described.