In-situ observation of porosity formation during directional solidification of Al-Si casting alloys

In-situ observation of porosity formation during directional solidification of two Al-Si alloys (7%Si and 13%Si) was made by using of micro-focus X-ray imaging.In both alloys,small spherical pores initially form in the melt far away from the eutectic solid-liquid (S/L) interface and then grow and coagulate during solidification.Some pores can float and escape from the solidifying melt front at a relatively high velocity.At the end of solidification,the remaining pores maintain spherical morphology in the near eutectic alloy but become irregular in the hypoeutectic alloy.This is attributed to different solidification modes and aluminum dendrite interactions between the two alloys.The mechanism of the porosity formation is briefly discussed in this paper.

Research progress on semi-continuous casting of magnesium alloys under external field

High-performance magnesium alloys are moving towards a trend of being produced on a large scale and in an integrated manner.The foundational key to their successful production is the high-quality cast ingots.Magnesium alloys produced through the conventional semi-continuous casting process inevitably contain casting defects,which makes it challenging to manufacture high-quality ingots.The integration of external field assisted controlled solidification technology,which combines physical fields such as electromagnetic and ultrasonic fields with traditional semi-continuous casting processes,enables the production of high-quality magnesium alloy ingots characterized by a homogeneous microstructure and absence of cracks.This article mainly summarizes the technical principles of those external field assisted casting process.The focus is on elaborating the refinement mechanism of different types of electromagnetic fields,ultrasonic fields,and combined physical fields during the solidification of magnesium alloys.Finally,the development prospects of producing highquality magnesium alloy ingots through semi-continuous casting under the external field were discussed.

Improvement of microstructure and mechanical properties of Al−Cu−Li−Mg−Zn alloys through water-cooling centrifugal casting technique

The microstructure and mechanical properties of as-cast Al−Cu−Li−Mg−Zn alloys fabricated by conventional gravity casting and centrifugal casting techniques combined with rapid solidification were investigated.Experimental results demonstrated that compared with the gravity casting technique,the water-cooling centrifugal casting technique significantly reduces porosity,refinesα(Al)grains and secondary phases,modifies the morphology of secondary phases,and mitigates both macro-and micro-segregation.These improvements arise from the synergistic effects of the vigorous backflow,centrifugal field,vibration and rapid solidification.Porosity and coarse plate-like Al13Fe4/Al7Cu2Fe phase result in the fracture before the gravity-cast alloy reaches the yield point.The centrifugal-cast alloy,however,exhibits an ultra-high yield strength of 292.0 MPa and a moderate elongation of 6.1%.This high yield strength is attributed to solid solution strengthening(SSS)of 225.3 MPa,and grain boundary strengthening(GBS)of 35.7 MPa.Li contributes the most to SSS with a scaling factor of 7.9 MPa·wt.%^(-1).The elongation of the centrifugal-cast alloy can be effectively enhanced by reducing the porosity and segregation behavior,refining the microstructure and changing the morphology of secondary phases.

Eutectic Solidification in Near-eutectic Al-Si Casting Alloys

Eutectic solidification in near-eutectic Al-13 wt pct Si casting alloys and the effect of trace addition of boron or strontium on it have been investigated using thermal analysis and microstructural characterization. In unmodified alloy, dual eutectic structure has been observed. The coarse eutectic （dendrite-like Al＋ coarse Si flakes） is formed above the equilibrium temperature of eutectic （Al＋Si） reaction （577℃）. The coarse eutectic （CE） grains nucleate from the primary silicon particles formed earlier due to local enrichment of silicon solute and grow in a divorced mode between the dendritic Al phase and large silicon flakes. The fine eutectic （FE） grains nucleate later on other potential sites activated by melt undercooling and grow in coupled-growing mode with the silicon crystals as fine flakes. The formation of the FE grains is favored in the alloys containing boron because of a great number of potential nucleation sites being added from boron-containing particles. Addition of strontium to the alloys restrains completely the formation of primary silicon particles and hence limits the nucleation of the CE. This is because the eutectic point has moved far enough to make the alloy, at this composition （Al-13 wt pct Si）, hypo-eutectic. Local cooling rate during solidification has an important influence on competition formation of these two eutectics.

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Hyper-eutectic Al-Si Alloys Fabricated by Spray Casting

Microstructure and mechanical properties of hyper-eutectic Al-Si alloy fabricated by spray casting were in- vestigated and then these results were compared with those by squeeze cast.The spray-cast specimen was found to have finer Si particles （～5μm） compared to the squeeze-cast specimen （10-25μm）.The tensile strength and elongation of the spray-cast specimen are also higher than those of the squeeze cast one.It was considered that the increased mechanical properties of the spray-cast specimen were mainly due to finer size of the Si particles distributed in Al matrix.

Effects of P+Cr complex modification and solidification conditions on microstmcture of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys by wedge-shaped copper mould casting

Large and segregated primary Si particles may drastically decrease the mechanical properties of AI-Si alloys. To solve this problem, a P-Cr complex modifier was added into the alloy, and the effects of P-Cr complex modification and solidification conditions on the microstructure of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys casting produced in wedge-shaped copper mould were studied. The thermal analysis technique was applied to calculate the cooling rate during solidification. The microstructures were observed by means of optical and scanning electron microscopies. Results showed that the primary Si segregates in the as-cast hypereutectic AI-Si alloys. The segregation of primary Si can be inhibited by adding a P＋Cr complex modifier and increasing the cooling rate during solidification. The refinement of primary Si particles by P＋Cr complex modification is due to the formation of CrSi2 and AlP particles which act as the heterogeneous nuclei for the primary Si phase. The segregation of Si was also inhibited through the adherence of heavier CrSi2 particles to the primary Si particles.

Growth mechanism of primary silicon in cast hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys

The microstructural features of hypoeutectic AI-10%Si alloy were observed using optical microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction. The results show that primary silicon particles are frequently found in hypoeutectic alloys. Hence, the nucleation and growth mechanisms of the precipitation of primary silicon of hypoeutectic Al-10%Si alloy melts were investigated. It was discovered that Si atoms are easy to segregate and form Si-Si clusters, which results in the formation of primary silicon even in eutectic or hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys. In addition, solute redistribution caused by chemical driving force and large pile-ups or micro-segregation of the solute play an important role in the formation of the primary silicon, and the solute redistribution equations were derived from Jackson-Chalmers equations. Once Si solute concentration exceeds eutectic composition, primary silicon precipitates are formed at the front of solid/liquid interface.

Low cycle fatigue behavior of T4-treated Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys prepared by squeeze casting and gravity die casting

Gravity die casting(GC) and squeeze casting(SC) T4-treated Al-7.0Zn-2.5Mg-2.1Cu alloys were employed to investigate the microstructures,mechanical properties and low cycle fatigue(LCF) behavior.The results show that mechanical properties of SC specimens are significantly better than those of GC specimens due to less cast defects and smaller secondary dendrite arm spacing(SDAS).Excellent fatigue properties are obtained for the SC alloy compared with the GC alloy.GC and SC alloys both exhibit cyclic stabilization at low total strain amplitudes(less than 0.4%) and cyclic hardening at higher total strain amplitudes.The degree of cyclic hardening of SC samples is greater than that of GC samples.Fatigue cracks of GC samples dominantly initiate from shrinkage porosities and are easy to propagate along them,while the crack initiation sites for SC samples are slip bands,eutectic phases and inclusions at or near the free surface.

Influence of technical parameters on strength and ductility of AlSi9Cu3 alloys in squeeze casting

An orthogonal test was conducted to investigate the influence of technical parameters of squeeze casting on the strength and ductility of AISigCu3 alloys. The experimental results showed that when the forming pressure was higher than 65 MPa, the strength （ab） of A1Si9Cu3 alloys decreased with the forming pressure and pouring temperature increasing, whereas ab increased with the increase of filling velocity and mould preheating temperature. The ductility （6） by alloy was improved by increasing the forming pressure and filling velocity, but decreased with pouring temperature increasing. When the mould preheating temperature increased, the ductility increased first, and then decreased. Under the optimized parameters of pouring temperature 730 ℃, forming pressure 75 MPa, filling velocity 0.50 m/s, and mould preheating temperature 220 ℃, the tensile strength, elongation, and hardness of A1Si9Cu3 alloys obtained in squeeze casting were improved by 16.7%, 9.1%, and 10.1%, respectively, as compared with those of sand castings.

Direct-chill semi-continuous casting process of three-layer composite ingot of 4045/3004/4045 aluminum alloys

Three-layer composite ingot of 4045/3004/4045 aluminum alloys was prepared by direct-chill semi-continuous casting process,the temperature field distribution near the composite interface,macro-morphology,microstructure and composition distribution of the composite interface were investigated.The results show that semi-solid layer with a certain thickness forms near the interface due to the effect of cooling plate,which ensures successful implementation of casting the composite ingot.Two different aluminum alloys are well bonded metallurgically.The mechanical properties of composite interface were measured,the tensile and shearing strengths of composite interface are 105 and 88 MPa,respectively,which proves that the composite interface is a kind of metallurgical bonding.

Dry sliding wear behavior of rheocast hypereutectic Al-Si alloys with different Fe contents

The effect of iron content on wear behavior of hypereutectic Al?17Si?2Cu?1Ni alloy produced by rheocasting process was investigated. The dry sliding wear tests were carried out with a pin-on-disk wear tester. The results show that the wear rate of the rheocast alloy is lower than that of the alloy produced by conventional casting process under the same applied load. The fine particle-likeδ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 and polygonalα-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 phases help to improve the wear resistance of rheocast alloys. As the volume fraction of fine Fe-bearing compounds increases, the wear rate of the rheocast alloy decreases. Moreover, the wear rate of rheocast alloy increases with the increase of applied load from 50 to 200 N. For the rheocast alloy with 3% Fe, oxidation wear is the main mechanism at low applied load (50 N). At higher applied loads, a combination of delamination and oxidation wear is the dominant wear mechanism.

Self tempering effect of near eutectic Al-Si casting with different wall thickness solidified and cooled in permanent die

In order to study the self tempering effect on the solidification of Al-Si alloy, a setup was designed to conduct experiments. The characters of β phases in different thicknesses of Al-Si samples were investigated. The results show that the size distributions of β phases obey the logarithmic normal distribution. The Brinell hardness tests were also carried out. The tested hardness results show that the hardness distribution of the casting cooled in water is evener than that cooled in air, and its averaged value is higher than that cooled in air.

Grain refinement of Mg-Al alloys by optimization of process parameters based on three-dimensional finite element modeling of roll casting

To study the influence of roll casting process parameters on temperature and thermal-stress fields for the AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets,three-dimensional geometric and 3D finite element models for roll casting were established based on the symmetry of roll casting by ANSYS software.Meshing method and smart-sizing algorithm were used to divide finite element mesh in ANSYS software.A series of researches on the temperature and stress distributions during solidification process with different process parameters were done by 3D finite element method.The temperatures of both the liquid-solid two-phase zone and liquid phase zone were elevated with increasing pouring temperature.With the heat transfer coefficient increasing,the two-phase region for liquid-solid becomes smaller.With the pouring temperature increasing and the increase of casting speed,the length of two-phase zone rises.The optimized of process parameters（casting speed 2 m/min,pouring temperature 640 ℃ and heat transfer coefficient 15 kW/（m2·℃） with the water pouring at roller exit was used to produce magnesium alloy AZ31 sheet,and equiaxed grains with the average grain size of 50 μm were achieved after roll casting.The simulation results give better understanding of the temperature variation in phase transformation zone and the formation mechanism of hot cracks in plates during roll casting and help to design the optimized process parameters of roll casting for Mg alloy.

Semisolid casting with ultrasonically melt-treated billets of Al-7mass%Si alloys

Abstract： The demand for high performance cast aluminum alloy components is often disturbed by increasing impurity elements, such as iron accumulated from recycled scraps. It is strongly required that coarse plate-like iron compound of β-Al5FeSi turns into harmless form without the need for applying refining additives or expensive virgin ingots. The microstructural modification of Al-7mass%Si alloy billets with different iron contents was examined by applying ultrasonic vibration during the solidification. Ultrasonically melt-treated billets were thixocast right after induction heating up to the semisolid temperature of 583 ℃, the microstructure and tensile properties were evaluated in the thixocast components. Globular primary reAl is required to fill up a thin cavity in thixocasting, so that the microstructural modification by ultrasonic melt-treatment was firstly confirmed in the billets. With ultrasonic melt-treatment in the temperature range of 630 ℃ to 605 ℃, the primary α-AI transforms itself from dendrite into fine globular in morphology. The coarse plate-like β-AIsFeSi compound becomes markedly finer compared with those in non-treated billets. Semisolid soaking up to 583 ℃, does not appreciably affect the size of β-AIsFeSi compounds; however, it affects the solid primary reAl morphology to be more globular, which is convenient for thixocasting. After thixocasting with preheated billets, eutectic silicon plates are extremely refined due to the rapid solidification arising from low casting temperature. The tensile strength of thixocast samples with different iron contents does not change much even at 2mass% of iron, when thixocast with ultrasonically melt-treated billets. However, thixocast AI-7mass%Si-2mass%Fe alloy with non-treated billets exhibits an inferior strength of 80 MPa, compared with 180 MPa with ultrasonically melt-treated billets. The elongation is also improved by about a factor of two in thixocastings with ultrasonically melt-treated billets for all iron contents of AI-7mass%Si alloys, for example, the elongation of 11% in thixocast of AI-7mass%Si-0.5mass%Fe alloy with ultrasonically melt-treated billets, 5% in that with non-treated billets.

Effect of Electromagnetic Frequency on Microstructures of Continuous Casting Aluminum Alloys

The relationship between electromagnetic frequency and microstructures of continuous casting aluminum alloys was studied. 7075 aluminum alloy ingot of 100 mm in diameter was produced by electromagnetic continuous casting process, the microstructures of as-cast ingot was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The results showed that electromagnetic frequency greatly influenced segregation and microstructures of as-cast ingot, and product quality can be guaranteed by the application of a proper frequency. Electromagnetic frequency plays a significant role in solute redistribution; low frequency is more efficient for promoting solution of alloying elements.

The Role of Particles in Fatigue Crack Propagation of Aluminum Matrix Composites and Casting Aluminum Alloys

Fatigue crack propagation （FCP） behaviors were studied to understand the role of SiC particles in 10 wt pct SiCp/A2024 composites and Si particles in casting aluminum alloy A356. The results show that a few particles appeared on the fracture surfaces in SiCp/Al composites even at high △K region, which indicates that cracks propagated predominantly within the matrix avoiding SiC particles due to the high strength of the particles and the strong particle/matrix interface. In casting aluminum alloy, Si particle debonding was more prominent.Compared with SiCp/Al composite, the casting aluminum alloy exhibited lower FCP rates, but had a slight steeper slope in the Paris region. Crack deflection and branching were found to be more remarkable in the casting aluminum alloy than that in the SiCp/Al composites, which may be contributed to higher FCP resistance in casting aluminum alloy.

Influence of high pressure and manganese addition on Fe-rich phases and mechanical properties of hypereutectic Al-Si alloy with rheo-squeeze casting

The influence of high pressure and manganese addition on Fe-rich phases(FRPs)and mechanical properties of Al-14Si-2Fe alloy with rheo-squeeze casting(RSC)was investigated.The semi-solid alloy melt was treated by ultrasonic vibration(UV)firstly,and then formed by squeeze casting(SC).Results show that the FRPs in as-cast SC alloys are composed of coarseβ-Al5(Fe,Mn)Si,δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 and bone-shapedα-Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 phases when the pressure is 0 MPa.With RSC process,the FRPs are first refined by UV,and then the solidification under pressure further causes the grains to become smaller.The peritectic transformation occurs during the formation ofαphase.For the alloy with the same composition,the ultimate tensile strength(UTS)of RSC sample is higher than that of the SC sample.With the same forming process,the UTS of Al-14Si-2Fe-0.8Mn alloy is higher than that of Al-14Si-2Fe-0.4Mn alloy.

Effect of holding pressure on density and cooling rate of cast Al-Si alloy during additive pressure casting

The cast Al-Si alloy was fabricated using the Additive Pressure Casting(APC)method.The effects of holding pressure from 50 to 400 k Pa on the density,cooling rate,and mechanical properties of the alloy,and the corresponding mechanism were discussed.The results indicate that the application of high holding pressure(300 k Pa)enhances the feeding ability of the alloy,leading to an increase of the density.Meanwhile,the cooling rate of the alloy is increased by 100%.In addition,the tensile testing results show that the increase of holding pressure from 50 to 300 k Pa improves the tensile strength and elongation of the alloy by 6.2%and 81.3%,respectively.However,excessive holding pressure(400 k Pa)might lower the density and cooling rate of the alloy due to the feeding channels being blocked.

Reaction between Ti and boron nitride based investment shell molds used for casting titanium alloys

The aim of this paper was to study the reaction between a Ti-6Al-4V alloy and boron nitride based investment shell molds used for investment casting titanium. In BN based investment shell molds, the face coatings are made of pretreated hexagonal boron nitride （hBN） with a few yttria （Y2O3） and colloidal yttria as binder. The Ti-6Al-4V alloy was melted in a controlled atmosphere induction furnace with a segment water-cooled copper crucible. The cross-section of reaction interface between Ti alloys and shell mold was investigated by electron probe micro-analyzer （EPMA） and microhardness tester. The results show that the reaction is not serious, the thickness of the reacting layer is about 30-50 μm, and the thickness of α-case is about 180-200 pro. Moreover the α-case formation mechanism was also discussed.

Wear behavior of Ti6Al4V biomedical alloys processed by selective laser melting, hot pressing and conventional casting

The aim of this work was to study the influence of the processing route on the microstructural constituents,hardness andtribological(wear and friction)behavior of Ti6Al4V biomedical alloy.In this sense,three different processing routes were studied:conventional casting,hot pressing and selective laser melting.A comprehensive metallurgical,mechanical and tribologicalcharacterization was performed by X-ray diffraction analysis,Vickers hardness tests and reciprocating ball-on-plate wear tests ofTi6Al4V/Al2O3sliding pairs.The results showed a great influence of the processing route on the microstructural constituents andconsequent differences on hardness and wear performance.The highest hardness and wear resistance were obtained for Ti6Al4Valloy produced by selective laser melting,due to a markedly different cooling rate that leads to significantly different microstructurewhen compared to hot pressing and casting.This study assesses and confirms that selective laser melting is potential to producecustomized Ti6Al4V implants with improved wear performance.