Formability in AA5083 and AA6061 alloys for light weight applications

With recent development in the automotive and aerospace industries, the lightweight, yet inexpensive aluminum alloys are of great demand in industrial applications. In this paper, considering the limited applications in non-superplastic materials, two typical alloys of AA5083 and AA6061 were investigated and compared during high temperature tensile tests to study their formability. The results of tensile tests and microstructures were shown, which indicated the deformation properties under different conditions. Both alloys exhibited relatively weak strain hardening effects especially at relatively lower strain rates. Furthermore, the highest strain rate sensitivity index (m value) was obtained, and the peak of percent elongation-to-failure also coincided with the ranges of highest m value. The flow stress coupled with the dynamic grain growth was related with the temperatures and strain rates. The grains appeared to be coarser in the deformed samples. Cavitation and recrystallization have also been found as a result of strain rate and temperature. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd.status: publishe

A verification of thermophysical properties of a porous ceramic investment casting mould using commercial computational fluid dynamics software

Defects in cast metals remain a common problem in many areas of the foundry industry, particularly in the investment casting of large area, thin-walled components for aerospace applications. During previous research, the thermophysical properties, density and porosity of a fibre reinforced ceramic investment casting mould were determined using several experimental techniques. Without verification, these experimental results remain nothing more than educated guesswork. The purpose of this study is to verify previous results and to more fully characterise the ceramic mould material with complementary measurements. A commercially available computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation package, Flow-3D®, was used in conjunction with a full-scale Ni-superalloy (IN718) casting to assess the accuracy of these results. By placing thermocouples strategically across the mould thickness, temperature profiles were determined and compared directly to predicted profiles extracted from the simulation by a custom-written Python script.Funding details: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC; Funding text 1: The authors would like to thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and TPC Components AB for providing their financial support towards this research. In addition, The authors would like to specifically thank Daniel Kuivamäki (TPC Components AB) and personnel of the Flow 3D® support team for their technical support with the computer simulations. The data used in this paper is described in the Cranfield Online Data Repository (CORD) at: http://doi.org/10.17862/cranfield.rd.9934280</p

Aluminum and Magnesium Metal Matrix Nanocomposites

The book looks into the recent advances in the ex-situ production routes and properties of aluminum and magnesium based metal matrix nanocomposites (MMNCs), produced either by liquid or semi-solid state methods. It comprehensively summarizes work done in the last 10 years including the mechanical properties of different matrix/nanoreinforcement systems. The book also addresses future research direction, steps taken and missing developments to achieve the full industrial exploitation of such composites. The content of the book appeals to researchers and industrial practitioners in the area of materials development for metal matrix nanocomposites and its applications