Available Data on the Properties of Non-Ferrous Metals and Alloys at Various Temperatures

Abstract

The properties of non-ferrous materials at high temperatures have received far less attention than has been given ferrous materials, and even present interest is less than their importance warrants. The purpose of the paper is not to present all the work that has been done in this field but to set forth typical properties of various non-ferrous materials. Annealed electrolytic copper, for example, falls off rapidly in strength with increasing temperatures, while the elongation decreases somewhat slowly up to 400 or 500 deg. fahr., and then very rapidly to a minimum. In the rolled condition, electrolytic copper shows a slightly greater decrease in strength at lower temperatures. But this applies to tests in air. When copper is tested in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide, both strength and elongation remain practically unchanged until a temperature of about 950 deg. fahr. is reached. Similar phenomena indicate how readily the properties of copper at elevated temperatures are influenced by other factors than temperature, such as the presence of impurities, oxidizing or non-oxidizing conditions, degree of annealing, and so forth. Similar decreases in value with high temperature are observed for hardness of copper. As a rule similar effects are also observable for copper-tin, phosphor-bronze, gun metal, and other alloys, but the properties vary largely with the composition of any given type of alloy. Copper-nickel alloys in particular seem to possess very desirable properties for use at elevated temperatures.

The paper is a thorough and authoritative digest of existing information embracing almost the entire range of non-ferrous metals and alloys used on a large scale industrially.