<p>Commercial alloys are continuously developed to improve their performance. Therefore it is important to develop new optimisation software, which could be used in development of new materials or in materials selection. In this study the mechanical properties which are important in materials selection in mechanical design are investigated. Two types of materials are analysed, aluminium alloys and stainless steels but focus will be on the aluminium alloys.</p><p>Thermodynamic analysis has been used to evaluate the effect of the microstructure. Solid solution hardening has been successfully modelled for both aluminium alloys and stainless steels and follows the theories by Labusch and Nabarro. The precipitation hardening is most dominant for the hardenable aluminium alloys, but the non-hardenable alloys also increase their strength from precipitation hardening. The non-hardenable alloys are divided into tempers, which differ in the amount of strain hardening. This has also been modelled successfully.</p><p>Combining these fundamental results with multiple regression, models for mechanical properties have been created. Separate models are developed for wrought aluminium alloys and stainless steels. For the aluminium alloys this includes the solid solution hardening and the precipitation hardening. For the stainless steels the thickness, nitrogen content and ferrite content are included together with the solid solution hardening.</p>

Commercial alloys are continuously developed to improve their performance. Therefore it is important to develop new optimisation software, which could be used in development of new materials or in materials selection. In this study the mechanical properties which are important in materials selection in mechanical design are investigated. Two types of materials are analysed, aluminium alloys and stainless steels but focus will be on the aluminium alloys. Thermodynamic analysis has been used to evaluate the effect of the microstructure. Solid solution hardening has been successfully modelled for both aluminium alloys and stainless steels and follows the theories by Labusch and Nabarro. The precipitation hardening is most dominant for the hardenable aluminium alloys, but the non-hardenable alloys also increase their strength from precipitation hardening. The non-hardenable alloys are divided into tempers, which differ in the amount of strain hardening. This has also been modelled successfully. Combining these fundamental results with multiple regression, models for mechanical properties have been created. Separate models are developed for wrought aluminium alloys and stainless steels. For the aluminium alloys this includes the solid solution hardening and the precipitation hardening. For the stainless steels the thickness, nitrogen content and ferrite content are included together with the solid solution hardening. / QC 20101122