A COMPARISON BETWEEN 3 SIMPLE CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLES OF PRECIPITATE MORPHOLOGY

The connection between the optimum shape and orientation relationship of precipitates in a solid is examined. Three simple criteria for precipitate morphology are compared and illustrated schematically: the principle that precipitate dimensions tend to be inverse to the magnitude of the transformation strain; the postulate that precipitates are bounded by unrotated planes (eigenplanes); and the proposal that interfaces are parallel to the planes of three independent dislocation loop arrays necessary to accommodate the transformation strain completely. These principles are illustrated for different orientation relationships, and it is shown that special features are displayed by invariant-line precipitates. The implications of these criteria for experimental studies of precipitate morphologies are discussed and their predictions compared with results from a recent study of lath-shaped precipitates in Cu-Cr alloys.