The effect of the size and bonding strength of the added element on the microstructure of the binary alloy

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the microstructures of five Ni-based alloys. The five added atoms Co, Cu, Rh, Al, and Zr are used to investigate the influence of the size and the bonding strength of the added element on the microstructures of the alloys. A many-body second moment tight binding approximation potential is adopted to model the interatomic interactions. The Honeycutt–Andersen (HA) pair analysis technique and radial distribution function (RDF) are adopted to obtain information on the local structures and relative atomic distribution for different alloys. In this study, it is found that the differences of atomic size between Ni and the alloyed element is a key factor in the crystalline formation of alloy.