Phase equilibria of the Al-Cu-Zn system for compositions close to brass alloys

Abstract

The effect of aluminium in the equilibrium phases of the Cu-Zn alloys, within the range ofchemical compositions of interest to brass producers, has been studied. Ternary alloys werecasted by melting two Cu-Zn base alloys (with ~59.5% and ~61.2 wt.% of Cu) followed by theaddition of aluminium up to 3.68 wt.%. Isothermal homogenization, followed by rapid cooling,has been employed to determine the equilibrium phases at different temperatures. The alloys have been observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the respective chemicalanalysis determined by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). The statistical analysis of theobtained results enable to correlate the chemical composition of equilibrium phases withtemperature, for the range of compositions studied.