Investigation of microstructural coarsening in Sn-Pb alloys

The central theme of this work is to investigate the kinetics of microstructural evolution at high volume fractions of the dispersed phase in a solid-liquid mixture. Until recently, the kinetics of coarsening in the high volume fraction range was not clearly established. A recent study focused on high volume fractions (V _v >0.90) revealed that the temporal scaling laws that describe phase coarsening change from the conventional cube root of time behavior to a fourth-power relationship. This work probes the variation of the temporal exponent with volume fraction of the dispersed phase (V _v >-0.60). An overview of the fundamentals of the physics involved in diffusion-limited coarsening is presented. Also explained is the relevance of phase coarsening in various applications. A succinct review of the attempts to understand the various parameters involved in coarsening is provided, with the Sn-Pb system chosen for this study for reasons apart from its importance as a commercial solder alloy system. Details of the experimental procedures are described, and, following this, the results are outlined and the underlying mechanisms discussed. The findings reveal that the temporal exponent changes as the volume fraction of the dispersed phase changes.