Aluminum alloys (Al鈥恆lloys) have many applications for 21st century industries. These alloys are an excellent choice for many applications including automotive, aerospace, construction of machines, appliances, structures, cooking utensils, electronic equipment, and cryogenic. In spite of their many applications, Research & Development (R&D) efforts are still ongoing to further improve their mechanical properties. The overarching goal of developing newer generations of Al alloys is about enhancing their mechanical properties by adapting couple of approaches namely melt casting strengthening and wrought composition alloying. Such enhancements in the mechanical properties are related to work鈥恏ardening or precipitate hardening of Al鈥恆lloys. To this regard, the single most important material parameter that governs the mechanical properties is elastic modulus or Young鈥檚 Modulus (Ym) of elasticity. The conventional methods for the determination of Ym include mechanical (static and dynamic), acoustic, ultrasonic, and optical methods. However, these methods allow only determination of Ym at bulk scales.
It is known that Ym is fundamentally controlled by the microstructure of alloys. Currently, the determination of microstructure and Ym are done in two separate experiments. This route allows establishing an 鈥渋ndirect鈥� structure鈥恜roperty between these two quantities. This exercise is often inefficient in providing the entire information about the dependence of property on microstructure. Whereas, a 鈥渄irect鈥� method will prove to be an excellent way of establishing the structure鈥恜roperty relationships as it allows drawing point鈥恇y鈥恜oint analysis between microstructure and property. That is why, in this proposal, an innovative and novel method for generating 鈥渄irect鈥� structure鈥恜roperty relationships are proposed. It will be performed in a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) instrument. In fact, the proposed method involves utilizing the scanning TEM (STEM) mode of TEM in conjunction with electron energy鈥恖oss spectroscopy (EELS). Under this scheme, the nanoscale microstructure is determined by using STEM imaging and while the mapping of Ym is carried out by using the so called low鈥恖oss EELS. This method not only provides an opportunity of having a direct microstructure鈥恜roperty relationship for Al alloys but it also provides the nanometer scale spatial resolution containing relationships. The proposed study nicely aligns with the 2030 plans of both the United Arab Emirates as well as the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It is expected that Abu Dhabi industries that will be the direct beneficiary of this research include aerospace, water, environment, and sustainability.
