On the Determination of the Size Distribution Functions of Spherical Precipitations in Al–Zn Alloys by Neutron Small‐angle Scattering

Abstract

The size distribution of approximately spherical incoherent precipitations of Zn in AlZn‐alloys is calculated and experimentally tested by means of neutron small angle scattering (NSAS) at a double‐crystal diffractometer (DCD). The scattering curves can be approximated by a Gaussian function, so that the size distribution is directly calculated for the experimentical scattering curves under application of a particular LAPLACE‐transformation. The size distributions of the α′m‐phase of AlZn(16)‐samples of different averaged radii of precipitations are calculated by means of FWHM which are determined by the fitting procedure of a computer programme and compared with TEM micrographs.