Multi-scale simulation of Al–Cu–Cd alloy for yield strength prediction of large components in quenching-aging process

The mechanical properties of Al–Cu alloys mainly depend on the manufacturing process, especially the heat treatment including quenching-aging process. In this paper, a multiscale model was proposed to simulate the quenching and aging process. Modified quench factor analysis(QFA) was used to simulate the quenching process and to integrate the quenching and aging process. The interfacial energies of the θ’ phase in an Al–Cu–Cd alloy were obtained by the total energies of the α+θ’ phase supercells with Cd atom segregation and the segregation energies of Cd atoms, which were calculated by using density functional theory(DFT) at the atomic scale. Moreover, the new interfacial energies and the compositions of the samples were utilized as the input parameters for the modified phase-field model(PFM) at the microscopic scale. The mean diameter of the θ’ phase and yield strength were validated by the experimental data. Based on the results of PFM, the aging process of a large component was calculated by finite element method(FEM) at the macroscopic scale.