Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
Fe-40A1, Fe-40A1–0.12B and Fe-40A1–5Ti were annealed at a variety of temperatures, water quenched to obtain different vacancy concentrations, and heated at 10 K/min to 973K in a differential scanning calorimeter. Either one or two exothermic peaks were observed, at 533–613K and 743–933K, for all the alloys, while an additional exothermic peak was observed at 653K-693K for Fe-40A1–5Ti. All the peaks shifted to lower temperature with increasing quenching temperature. It is shown that the highest temperature exothermic peak is associated with the annihilation of thermal vacancies. Analysis of this peak as a function of temperature yields vacancy formation enthalpies of 102±15kJ/mol, 104±15 kJ/mol and 81±15 kJ/mol for Fe-40A1, Fe-40A1–0.12B and Fe-40A1–5Ti, respectively. The lower temperature exothermic peaks may arise from vacancy rearrangement.