Abstract: The effect of prior deformation on the mechanical properties and microstructural evolution of aging process in a Cu-30Ni-25Fe (in at. pct) alloy has been studied by tensile test, hardness measurement, SEM and optical microscopy analysis. The results show that spinodal decomposition and recovery process interact on each other when aged at low temperature (600℃), and most of the defects induced by cold-work did not disappear in 100 h. When aged at high temperature (850℃), the discontinuous coarsening of the spinodal products takes place. The increase in yield strength and elongation of the sample aged at 850℃ for 5 h after deformation mainly results from the submicrometer grains produced by discontinous coarsening of spinodal products.

Key words: