Constitutive behavior of an AA4032 piston alloy with Cu and Er additions upon high temperature compressive deformation

The Research and Researchers for Industry (RRi); King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonbur

Modification of Eutectic Si in Hypoeutectic Al-Si Alloys with Erbium Addition

Effect of erbium (Er) on the eutectic Si morphologies in hypoeutectic Al-Si based alloys was investigated using thermal analysis and microstructure examination. The microstructural observations show that the addition of Er causes significant modification of the eutectic silicon morphology from a coarse plate-like to a fine fibrous one. Furthermore, the results of thermal analysis reveal that the addition of Er decreased the temperatures of eutectic nucleation and growth, and increased the eutectic undercooling. The eutectic undercooling caused by the presence of Er plays an important role in the modification of eutectic silicon.</jats:p

Microstructure evolution of an Al–Fe–Ni alloy with Zr and Sc additions upon different cooling rates during solidification for improving the mechanical and electrical conductivity properties

Al–Fe–Ni eutectic alloys have high potential for being alternative aluminum alloys for various electronic and electrical applications instead of conventional low-conductivity Al casting alloys. Furthermore, the addition of Zr and Sc up to 0.3–0.6 wt% improves the hardness for high temperature applications, which is a result of the finer Al–Fe–Ni eutectic structure, and precipitation hardening of Al3Zr and/or Al3Sc nanoprecipitates. Thus, the aim of the present contribution is to analyze the microstructure features changes in an Al-1.75Fe–1.25Ni eutectic alloy upon different cooling rates during solidification. The features of Al–Fe–Ni eutectics and intermetallics were studied quantitatively, and the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity were measured

Structure modification upon ultrasonic processing of an AA4032 piston alloy: comparison of permanent mold and direct-chill casting

Piston Al-Si alloys have very complex compositions and multi-phase heterogeneous structure, so it is necessary to control the formation of primary and eutectic compounds. In this study, the ultrasonic melt processing (USP) of a eutectic Al-Si piston alloy (AA4032-type) was performed in a permanent mold and during direct-chill (DC) casting to study its effects on the structure refinement and modification. The principal difference between these two ways of casting is that in the permanent mold the solidification front progressively moves towards the ultrasound source, while in the DC casting the position of the solidification front is fixed in space. The results showed that the USP can successfully refine primary Si, Fe-containing intermetallics and aluminum grains. Refinement of primary Si was accompanied by the increase in its amount, which was attributed to both enhanced heterogeneous nucleation and fragmentation. The refinement of Fe-containing intermetallics and Al grains resulted from the fragmentation mechanism and were more pronounced when USP was applied below the liquidus temperature in the permanent mold. However, the eutectic phases coarsened upon USP, and this effect was most pronounced when USP was applied to the semi-solid material. This was related to the strong attenuation of acoustic waves, which effectively heats the semi-solid material and induces corresponding coarsening of the phases. Acoustic streaming induced by an oscillating sonotrode affected the depth of the sump while simultaneously decreasing the macrosegregation, which reflects the dominant role of the melt flow directed against natural convection. The results demonstrated the importance of the solidification stage at which the USP was applied and the specifics of the USP mechanisms acting at the different stages of solidification

Constitutive behavior of an AA4032 piston alloy with Cu and Er additions upon high-temperature compressive deformation

Aluminum piston alloys of the AA4032 type are produced by direct-chill (DC) casting an

Effects of ultrasonic melt processing on microstructure, mechanical properties, and electrical conductivity of hypereutectic Al–Si, Al–Fe, and Al–Ni alloys with Zr additions

Ultrasonic melt processing (USP) technique was used to study the effect of Zr addition on the structure refinement and mechanical properties of hypereutectic binary alloy in three different alloys (Al–Si, Al–Fe, and Al–Ni) as potential alternatives to the Al–Si eutectic system especially for high-temperature applications. Mechanical properties of these alloys were controlled through both structure refinement by USP and also Al3Zr nano-precipitation hardening. Significant refinement of primary intermetallics was achieved under USP during the Al3Zr formation in solidification process. The residual Zr in the aluminium solid solution enabled precipitation hardening at 450 °C. As a result, the tensile properties, especially ductility, were considerably improved at room and elevated temperatures. The mechanical properties were analyzed with respect to the volume fraction of intermetallic phases. Electrical conductivity was measured to better explore their potential applications. The effects of alloying elements and structural changes on the mechanical behaviour and electrical conductivity were discussed