The behaviour of the pre-bainitic transformation in the Cu-Zn-Al-Mn al
loy was investigated by using internal friction (Q-1) measurements and
TEM. The results show that there always exists an internal friction p
eak associated with the segregation of solute atoms before the formati
on of orthorhombic 9R bainite and that the 9R bainite nucleates marten
sitically in depleted regions of solute atoms in the B2 phase. The tra
nsformation processes mentioned above were also confirmed in isotherma
l internal friction and TEM experiments.