Precipitation hardening of Al alloys is an essential aging process for industrial applications demanding lightweight and high-mechanical strength materials. However, this process drastically reduces the thermal conductivity of the Al alloy owing to the formation of intermetallic precipitates. Because the growth of the intermetallic precipitates is a complicated process involving the diffusion of alloying elements as well as phase transformation, the prediction of the thermal conductivity during the precipitation process has not been accomplished. Herein, an accurate prediction method for the effective thermal conductivity of Al alloys during the precipitation process is presented. Interestingly, the study finds that the inhomogeneous distribution of the composition in the Al solid solution generates a considerably inhomogeneous distribution of the thermal conductivity around the precipitates; consequently, the accuracy of our prediction is 30% higher than that in previous studies.

对于要求轻质和高机械强度材料的工业应用，铝合金的沉淀硬化是必不可少的时效工艺。然而，由于形成金属间沉淀，该过程极大地降低了铝合金的热导率。由于金属间沉淀物的生长是一个复杂的过程，涉及合金元素的扩散以及相变，因此尚未完成对沉淀过程中热导率的预测。本文提出了一种准确的铝合金析出过程中有效导热系数的预测方法。有趣的是 研究发现，Al固溶体中成分的不均匀分布会在析出物周围产生相当大的热导率不均匀分布。因此，我们的预测准确性比以前的研究高30％。