Using liquid Fe 60 Cu 40 alloy as a model, the structure of liquid Fe-Cu alloy systems is investigated in the temperature range 1200 2200 K, covering a large metastable undercooled regime, to understand the phase separation of liquid Fe-Cu alloys on the atomic scale. The total pair distribution functions (PDFs) indicate that liquid Fe 60 Cu 40 alloy is ordered in the short range and disordered in the long range. If the atom types are ignored, the total atom number densities and PDFs demonstrate that the atoms are distributed homogenously in the liquid alloy. However, the segregation of Fe and Cu atoms is very obvious with decreasing temperature. The partial PDFs and coordination numbers show that the Cu and Fe atoms are not apt to get together on the atomic scale at low temperatures; this will lead to large fluctuations and phase separation in liquid Fe-Cu alloy.
For liquid Ti, it is difficult to achieve high undercooling because of its chemical reactivity; as a result, there is little information available on its properties and structure in the undercooled state. In this study, we investigate the density and structure, using molecular dynamics method, for the undercooling and superheating ranges 0-743 K and 0-457 K. The density increases quadratically for undercooling. At the melting temperature, the density is 4.14 g/cm3, and first and second temperature coefficients are obtained. The pair correlation functions and coordination numbers indicate that the short range degree of order becomes increasingly significant with increasing undercooling.
