Abstract
Comprehensive studies of the relative effects of dilute alloying elements on the electrical conductivities of metals and alloys have been conducted by developing an effective pattern recognition application. In particular, the effects of 79 elements on three most commonly used metals of copper, aluminum and steel are reported. Our model offers a practical tool to predict the trends of changes in electrical conductivity of any host metal undergoing single or multinary element alloying. It covers not only the elements for which the Norbury-Linde rule is valid but any elements in the periodic table. Furthermore, it is found that the effects of elements of the same group in the period table normally reduce as the increment in the periods. Consequently, our model provides new information and knowledge for the design of alloys of either good electrical conductivity or high resistivity. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.