Study on typical hole defects in AZ91D magnesium alloy prepared by low pressure lost foam casting

The hole defects can easily occur in magnesium alloy castings that are prepared by low pressure lost foam casting(LP-LFC)process when the process parameters such as vacuum,pouring temperature and f illing velocity are not properly selected.In this study,the forming mechanism of the hole defects in AZ91D magnesium castings by LP-LFC process was investigated.The shape,location and surface appearance of the hole defects were observed using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy,and the chemical composition on the surface of the holes was analyzed using energy spectrometer.The result indicates that there are two types of hole defects,i.e.,the pyrolysis products related hole defects,including concentrative hole and blow hole defects,and slag related hole defects.The concentrative hole and the blow-hole defects were formed either by the liquidEPS degradation products entrapped in the molten metal under the condition that the pouring temperature is equal to or lower than 730℃,or by the hindered transport of EPS pyrolysis products.Some irregular shape hole defects were caused by slag or by coating slough entrapment when the pouring temperature is equal to 750℃and the f illing velocity is equal to or greater than 100 mm·s-1.To reduce or eliminate the hole defects,the vacuum and f illing velocity must be properly chosen to ensure that the metal front prof ile exhibits convex shape and in laminar current state,and the pouring temperature should be just high enough to ensure that the molten melt has adequate heat energy to complete the foam pyrolysis and to fully occupy the mould.For AZ91D magnesium castings in this study,the parameters should be 730℃pouring temperature,0.02-0.03 MPa vacuum and 80mm·s-1f illing velocity.

Role of oxides in the formation of hole defects in friction stir welded joint of 2519-T87 aluminum alloy

The role of oxides in the formation of hole defects in friction stir welded joint of 2519-T87 aluminum alloy has been investigated by using optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, electron backscatter diffraction and electron probe microanalyzer to examine the distribution of oxides and the features of hole defects, and using ABAQUS 3D thermo-mechanical coupling finite element model based on arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method to simulate the material flow behavior. Oxides exist at the edge of tunnel hole and in the micropores in the joint. Based on distribution of oxygen and material flow behavior, it is believed that the oxides on the surface of the alloy tend to flow down into the bulk along the flow direction of plastic material during friction stir welding, aggregate in the weak region of material flow at the intersection of the shoulder affected zone and the stir pin-tip affected zone, and consequently prevent the material from contacting and diffusing. Due to the insufficient material flow and therefore the small plastic deformation,the pressure is not high enough to compress the accumulated oxides, resulting in hole defects.

Lamb wave topological imaging for blind hole defects in isotropic plates

The research aims at validating the ability of topological imaging to blind holes in isotropic plates using Lamb waves. Due to the defect is not symmetric around the mid- plane of the plate, the effect of Lamb mode conversion will have to be taken into account. The imaging method is based on two computations of ultrasonic fields, one forward and one adjoint, performed for the defect-free reference medium. The excited signal and scattered Lamb waves caused by the blind hole, are used as emitting sources to compute the forward problem and the adjoint problem, respectively. With the help of the finite element simulations, the natural refocusing process of the multimode Lamb waves at the defect location is visually demonstrated by the transient acoustic field snapshots at the different moments to strengthen the physical mechanism of the topological imaging method. The numerical results demonstrate that topological imaging has relatively stronger applicability to the blind hole in contrast to classical Delay And Sum （DAS） method and Time Reversal （TR） method. The topological imaging could handle complex Lamb wave signals containing mode conversions without the imaging quality being affected. The proposed imaging method presents a certain developing potential for detecting and imaging asymmetric defects in plate-like configurations using Lamb waves.