Effect of melt holding on morphological evolution and sedimentation behavior of iron-rich intermetallic phases in Al-Si-Fe-Mn-Mg alloy

The effect of the melt holding temperature on the morphological evolution and sedimentation behavior of iron-rich intermetallics in Al-7.0 Si-1.0 Fe-1.2 Mn-0.25 Mg alloy was investigated using an optical microscope,scanning electron microscope and differential thermal analyzer.The results show that as the holding temperature decreases,the morphologies of the primary iron-rich phase in matrix change from star-like to polygonal,and the number of the primary phases gradually decreases and disappears at 615°C.Finally,the Chinese script phases with small size,high compact and uniform distribution are obtained.In contrast,the primary iron-rich phases in slag transform into a coarser polygonal shape with lower roundness,and some of them have hollow structures.Furthermore,the area fraction of intermetallics and Fe content in the matrix decrease gradually due to the formation and growth of sludge and subsequent natural sedimentation during melt holding.With the decrease of holding temperature,the main factors hindering the settlement of the primary phases are morphology,size,and density in turn.

Microstructural evolution,flow stress and constitutive modeling of Al−1.88Mg−0.18Sc−0.084Er alloy during hot compression

To explore the hot compression behavior and microstructural evolution,fine-grained Al−1.88Mg−0.18Sc−0.084Er(wt.%)aluminum alloy wires were fabricated with Castex(continuous casting−extrusion)and ECAP-Conform,and their hot compression behavior was investigated at temperatures of 673−793 K and strain rates of 0.001−10 s−1;the microstructures were characterized by optical microscope,X-ray diffractometer,transmission electron microscope,and electron backscattered diffractometer,and the flow stresses were obtained by thermal compression simulator.Microstructural evolution and flow curves reveal that dynamic recovery is the dominant softening mechanism.Continuous dynamic recrystallization followed by dynamic grain growth takes place at a temperature of 773 K and a strain rate of 0.001 s−1;the yielding drop phenomenon was discovered.Hyperbolic sine constitutive equation incorporating dislocation variables was presented,and a power law constitutive equation was established.The stress exponent is 3.262,and the activation energy for deformation is 154.465 kJ/mol,indicating that dislocation viscous glide is the dominant deformation mechanism.