Application of ANOVA method to precipitation behaviour studies

The Analysis of variance (ANOVA) method has been used to illustrate the implementation of adaptive numerical (AN) techniques for the prediction of the precipitation behaviour of commercial materials. Case studies involving the analysis of σ-phase precipitation kinetics in duplex stainless steel (DSS) produced by sand casting and age hardening of 2219 aluminium alloy microalloyed with Ge and/or Si are presented. For each alloy, complex datasets comprised the results obtained from heat treatment trials on a range of commercial processing conditions, so that a single and combined effect of various parameters can be determined. This enabled an estimate of the most influential parameters to be made, providing an effective means of commercial alloy development and process optimisation.