Effective hydrogen diffusion coefficient for solidifying aluminium alloys

An effective hydrogen diffusion coefficient has been calculated for two solidifying Al - 4.5 wt.% Cu and Al - 10 wt.% Cu alloys as a function of the volume fraction of solid. For this purpose, in situ X-ray tomography was performed on these alloys. For each volume fraction of solid between 0.6 and 0.9, a representative volume element of the microstructure was extracted. Solid and liquid voxels were assimilated to solid and liquid nodes in order to solve the hydrogen diffusion equation based on the chemical potential and using a finite volume formulation. An effective hydrogen diffusion coefficient based on the volume fraction of solid only could be deduced from the results of the numerical model at steady state. The results are compared with various effective medium theories. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.